Dumped on the Rooster
by Water-smurf
Summary: They were just normal teenagers at a normal reform boarding school. Sure, the potentially fatal punishments were weird, but okay. Then a familiar stranger came. Now they all have to ask themselves if they want to see what they left behind.
1. Why Do They Get Their Own Water Anyway?

"Welcome, students, to the start of a new year."

Rows and rows of blue hoods sat in the chapel, staring up at the woman talking at the podium, pale hands with flawlessly manicured red nails tapping sharply against the hard wooden surface. It was like this every beginning of the school year. None of the students could pick out a difference in the woman or in her presentation, the same way none could see a difference in the building that sheltered them. These things were the same at the start and end of time.

"To those new students, welcome to the Lethe Academy community."

A cloaked student with pale delicate hands shifted, crossing thin arms. The student sitting next to it leaned to the side a little, a couple locks of red hair falling from under the blue hood.

"Here we go again," the student with red hair murmured very softly.

"Do not speak. You know how she hates it when we speak."

"You are the chosen few allowed to attend our school. Many of you come from less well-off backgrounds, and we at Lethe Academy are happy to elevate your status if you will do your part."

The stained glass windows stretching up the steeple glowed softly with the last rays of the twilight sun, letting the images of various gods fighting, tricking, and loving each other radiate light for a last few minutes. Signs almost as big as the windows were hung on the stone walls, looking out of place against the gray, medieval architecture. They were a list of rules. Every letter was bolded. Every other word underlined.

'**Infractions that Earn ****Swift and Immediate Punishment****:**

**PDA**

**Cheating/Plagiarism**

**Swearing**

**Use or Possession of ****Drugs or Alcohol**

**Possession or Use of ****Weapons**

**Fighting**

**Sexually-Based**** Activity ****(THIS WILL ALSO EARN IMMEDIATE SOLITARY RESTRICTION FOR THE FEMALE INVOLVED)****(What counts as sexually-based is interpreted by the administrators on a case-by-case basis)**

**Tampering or Destruction of School Property**

**Disrespect Towards Administrators**

**Cruising (****Leaving Your Dorm Once You Have Signed in and it has Closed for the Night****)**

**Illegal Activity**

**Walking in the Woods After Dorm Closing Hours**' and so on. More and more rules always added, to the point where most people simply assumed that everything but doing exactly what the teachers told you to do was against them.

"The Lethe Academy is one of the most renowned boarding schools in the world. The faculty is rigorously tested before they are allowed to work here. The facilities outside of the arts and science halls are all kept in their original state from over a hundred years ago."

Two students were sitting nearly shoulder-to-shoulder next to the student with the red hair and the one with the delicate hands. The only sign that these students were different was that their hands were green and their nails were long and sharp.

Neither spoke. One only rested a green hand on the other's shoulder, squeezing gently. The other student did nothing to respond, and that in and of itself signified the silent thankfulness.

"All that's needed to complete the image is for your excellence, and I'm sure that we'll receive it."

The rows of hoods shifted and six students stood, walking to the podium in a swirl of blue, white hands like froth moving against the colors. They all stood in a line, facing the students, and pulled down their hoods.

"These are the school monitors. Recognize their faces. If they find out about rule-breaking, they will report you to me or your dean."

Down the row, several teenagers, mostly boys, stood rigid. A clean-shaven boy with a full head of dark blue hair. A boy with a shaved head, a growing goatee, and scars crisscrossing every inch of his skin. A girl with short turquoise hair. A boy with thick hair the same color as the girl's. A girl with long black hair and a serious face.

All had the school emblem on their breast, the three roads coming together at a black pool.

"I'm sure that I won't need them to come to me."

Quiet settled. The room dropped several degrees.

The students all tensed as one, anticipating what was coming next.

"And I'm sure that I do not need to remind you that anyone caught practicing witchcraft will be immediately thrown at the mercy of the courts and burned at the stake."

There was a long silence.

The woman gave a fake smile. It made the tattoo of the skeleton dragon on her face look twisted. "Classes start at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow. Dismissed."

---

"Lights-Out begins in a minute! If your lights are still on by then, you have an immediate restriction!"

A girl with red hair scowled at the frowning serious-faced monitor before scrambling from the bathroom, sliding into her own room with grace that could only come from muscle memory. "Elf, are you in bed?"

Elf, an elf with royal purple hair and violet eyes (and who the girl with red hair would have no idea which gender she was had she not been placed in the girls' dorms), looked up from reading a simple leather-bound book on the bed, snapping it shut. "Miss Red, you should turn off the lights."

Red rolled her eyes. "Call me 'Miss' again and this will be a very unpleasant roommate-ship." She flicked the lights off, closed the door, and zipped under the covers, squirming out of her pants and bra under the sheets. They had only been given five minutes to get ready. How Elf had managed to wash her face, brush her teeth, and change into a nightgown and still had had time to read was a mystery for the ages.

Someone pushed the door open. "Sorry, guys—doors can't be shut at any time."

Red sat up, scowling and squinting at the light invading the room. "Turquoise, that's ridiculous."

The short-haired girl monitor shook her head, smiling ruefully. "Sorry, Red. The school doesn't want anything funny going on."

"And they believe that all the roommates will be copulating with one another the night they meet like wild rabbits if the doors are _shut?_" Elf asked irritably, glaring at the light coming in their room from the hallway, too dim to read anything by but too bright to comfortably sleep with.

"Hey, I don't make up the rules. I just make sure no one does something that can get them in trouble." Turquoise leaned against the doorway. "Look at it this way—we're enforcing your oath of chastity."

"Chastity can kiss my ass. I like sleeping without light and people pacing outside my door," Red said sourly. "I can already tell that I'll be loving this year."

Elf paused for a moment, then sighed resignedly. "It is just as arbitrary as the rest of the rules here, but we lack the power to do something about it." She rolled on her side with her back to the door. "Good night, I suppose."

"Sorry, Elf. I'll make it up to you and Red tomorrow." Turquoise smiled fondly. "Pretend you're sleeping. Sirius is going through the rooms to check if anyone's talking. Did you finish up your water?"

Red shrugged, fluffing her pillow with unnecessary violence. "Of course. Both of us did. Why?"

"I don't know. They just want you all to stay hydrated and not get up in the middle of the night to get a drink, so they tell the monitors to ask. Good luck with classes tomorrow."

"You too."

Turquoise disappeared from the door. By the time Sirius, the black-haired girl monitor, came at their doorway to check on them, they were pretending to be thoroughly asleep.

---

"Big brother, I don't like this place already," the goblin missing his left eye grumbled, pulling his uniform blue cloak off and putting on a pair of pants to sleep in. "I mean, they're _way_ too uptight about this 'no sex' thing. What does solitary confinement mean? Why is it that the girls are the only ones who get it if they get caught having sex?"

"Are you complaining about not being thrown there yourself?"

"No, but how can a school get away with something like that?"

The goblin missing his right eye turned away from his little brother, pulling on his own sleepwear. "This is a very prestigious school. It reforms a lot of troublesome kids and sends them off to good colleges. They insist that strictness is key to that, and the rest of the world is willing to overlook some moralistic and sexist policies." He looked back, smiling fondly. "So if you plan on sleeping with the girls, make sure they don't get caught or you'll find yourself running out of them quick."

"You know me. A real Casanova." The younger brother smiled and sat on his bed. "What about you? You seriously need a girlfriend."

"I like to focus on schoolwork, thanks." The older brother shrugged and smiled. "Besides, with all the rules they have surrounding stuff like that, it's more trouble than it's worth."

"Nice to see that you have some sense, but let's see if you keep thinking that way once you see all the girls."

The scarred school monitor hung by the doorway politely, glancing in and doing a visual sweep of the room. "Especially Demon. She has any boy she meets on strings."

"I doubt she'll get Big Brother." The youngest brother looked back at the older amusedly. "I swear, it's like he's a eunuch."

"And it's like you want to be thrown out of school," the older brother countered, a smile playing across his face. "Besides, not everyone wants to sleep with whatever girl throws herself at him."

"Eunuch."

"I bet you don't even know what a eunuch is."

The scarred monitor chuckled softly. "This argument will have to wait for the morning, Patch, Crim."

Crim, the older brother, nodded, settling under his blankets. "I don't know about you, Brother, but I want to be awake for the first day."

"Classes are painless when you sleep through them."

"Not when the teachers catch you and drag you off to be beaten. I'm only going to cover for you three times, then you're on your own."

The monitor chuckled softly again. "Maybe you shouldn't be talking about this in front of me."

Patch glanced over at him, giving a sly grin. "We know you won't report us, Scar."

"Just remember that I'm a monitor." Scar yawned. "Now sleep. Whether or not you want to succeed, it's always best to be well-rested."

"Sure thing, Scar."

He smiled ruefully, turning off the lights and leaving, keeping the door open in his wake.

A/N

This lacks a beta, so the quality may not be completely on-par, but I'm having fun with it. I hope you are too. :)


	2. She IS Acting Like a Shrew

"Come on, Elf. You can't just sit on your own during the first day of school!"

Elf grumbled softly, Red's hand clamped firmly on a thin wrist and dragging the reluctant student through the Dining Hall. "I met a bunch of guys in my Literature and Math classes. They seem pretty cool. We're going to sit with them and see if we can get hooked up."

"Red, the consequences of 'hooking up' far outweigh the—"

"As long as no one does the nasty, we're fine." The red-haired student looked back at her roommate, green eyes sparkling. "Live a little. Get a guy that will help you let your hair down. I swear, I've only been your roommate for a night and I can already feel the tension from your side…"

"Tension is not a foreign concept here! Red, I overheard a student being forcibly apprehended and beaten for the use of a vulgar word!" Elf glanced around before hissing softly in the human girl's ear. "It was so vicious that I saw the blood soak through her bandages, clothes, and seat cushion during Cultural Studies."

Red was still smiling, but she looked a little paler. "Well, we can avoid that by not breaking any rules. I mean, we're not going to be beaten by sitting with boys."

"I'm sure that there is a rule against it."

"One that everyone breaks! Anyway, I'm making you do this, so be friendly."

Red made a jerking motion, nearly ripping Elf's arm out of its socket, and pulled her to a table of four boys. "Hey, guys! This is the roommate I told you about!"

They were all wearing their uniform blue cloaks with white shirts and black pants, but their hoods were down. A halfling boy with scraggly auburn hair and brown eyes immediately took an interest in Elf, looking her up and down and frowning thoughtfully. A boy with skin the color of chocolate and a shaved head (and a very broad and well-muscled body, Elf had to admit) looked up, smiling and gesturing for them to sit. "You're Elf, right? Red mentioned you."

Red forced the reluctant elf to sit. A blond boy with big blue eyes shuffled to sit next to her, smiling brightly, while a dwarf boy with a short brown beard, a shaved head, and dark eyes shook his head fondly.

"I am Elf, yes," Elf murmured softly.

"Are you sure you're a girl?" the halfling piped up, frowning at her. "I can't tell!"

Elf felt an instant sense of dislike flare and she simply narrowed her eyes. "I do not believe that that is any of your business."

"Of course she's a girl. They wouldn't let her in the girls' dorms if they didn't know that." The dark skinned human paused, then frowned, glancing at the elf. "Right?"

"She's a girl." Red winked flirtatiously at the blond boy. "So, Blondie, what class do you have next?"

Blondie shrugged, smiling with an innocent gleam in his eyes. "Elven."

"Oh, what a surprise! So do I!"

Elf rolled her eyes. "You will not learn Elven in a mere four years of classes."

"As long as I get a good grade, I don't care," Red said absently, leaning towards Blondie and smiling flirtatiously. "So anyway…"

Elf rolled violet eyes before looking up at the room, watching the kids mill around with lunch trays. Two goblin boys sat at the table beside them, talking with the occasional swat to each other's shoulders. The female elf frowned a little, noting that both boys were missing an eye—mirror images of each other.

The one missing his right eye paused, apparently sensing her stare, and glanced up.

One gold eye met violet.

Elf took a sharp breath, scowling and looking away. 

"…So you speak Elven?"

She jumped in surprise, looking up at the black-skinned human and wondering if he had been speaking to her, then nodded. "Of course."

The black-skinned human cocked his head, smiling wryly. "You think you can give me tips? Blondie, Red, Doppel, and I are the only new students in Elven One, and I already can't make heads or tails of anything."

"Of course. What may I call you?"

"Coal," he said automatically, then he gestured to the dwarf sitting besides him. "And this is Dwarf."

The dwarf made a small waving motion.

Elf dipped a delicate head. "Very well. What do you know so far of Elven?"

"Basically, all I know is 'Saesa omentien lle' and 'Namaarie'."

"It seems as though you have only looked at greetings and fairwells, then. And your accent is horrendous."

Coal shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "I told you I couldn't make heads or tails of anything."

Elf shook out her wild hair, letting it cover half her face. "Well, then, we should work a little on your pronunciation if you are to make any progress whatsoever. Elven is too complex a language to mispronounce words and expect the listener to understand. Repeat after me: it is 'Saesa…"

---

"Good afternoon, class."

Elf frowned up at the teacher, pulling out a large theological studies textbook from her bag. A series of names were written on the whiteboard next to names of various minor deities. Her own name was beside 'Crim' and the deity Morpheus. The teacher was dressed in a Lethe-blue robe, though his brown hair was rumpled and his dark eyes looked achingly bored. That was a very bad sign for the first day of classes.

"For those of you who don't know, I'm Element." The teacher faced the students, gesturing to piles and piles of books on either side of his desk. The entire classroom seemed to consist of three two-seat columns—two at the walls and one going through the center—and several rows, all facing the big wooden teacher desk and the whiteboard behind it. "You're going to need these. But before I tell you why, do you all know each other?"

Everyone shook their heads. Elf leaned forward, frowning, predicting an unpleasant class.

And judging by the hand drifting along her thigh, it was going to be much worse than she thought.

Elf grabbed the stray hand, twisting it and glaring at its owner.

A succubus with dark skin, black curly hair, folded bat wings, and red eyes grinned at her with pointed teeth, playfully daring her to tell the teacher. They both knew well enough that any girl who participated in 'objectionable' activities, willingly or no, would be punished just as harshly as the dominant participant.

Elf glared at her and threw her hand back, keeping violet eyes narrowed and hissing softly under her breath. "It would do you well to keep your hands to yourself."

The succubus chuckled lowly. "You might want to pay attention to the teacher, Elf."

Elf scowled and looked back at the front of the class, moving so she was on the edge of her seat farthest away from the succubus.

"Alright, then. Consider this a good opportunity to get to know your classmates." Element turned to the whiteboard, frowning at the names. "Patch?"

"Yeah?"

Elf turned to look at the two seats behind her and saw, with a slight pinkish color coming to a pale face, that the goblins the student had been staring at during the lunch period were behind her and the succubus. The goblin with his left eye missing—Patch—was ignoring her and looking at the teacher with mild interest, but the goblin beside him was staring at her with a slight frown on his face.

Elf scowled at him and turned back to look at the teacher. The succubus reached over and lightly stroked her thigh, working inward slowly. Elf tried to jerk away without looking obvious, grabbing the succubus's wrists and digging sharp nails in dark skin.

The succubus winced and tried to pull away, but Elf simply dug the nails in deeper.

"You're paired with Tusk. You both are going to be researching the goddess Astraea. I'll explain the details of the assignment once everyone is with their partners. She's right there."

He gestured to the only half-orc in the whole class—possibly in the whole school—who was wearing the traditional blue cloak and was waving a green hand sheepishly, shyly shrinking back in the corner. Patch got up, flashing a grin at the other goblin, and sat beside her.

The succubus jerked her arm out of Elf's grip, ignoring the blood bubbling up from the nail marks, and gently ran her fingers along the slenderer creature's abdomen, lifting the hem of her shirt gently.

Elf tensed, eyes lighting on fire, and pulled a sharpened pencil casually from the bag, lightly fingering the tip and whispering from the corner of thin lips. "If you do not remove your appendage this instant, I shall put this in an extremely uncomfortable place for you, then use the rest of my writing implements to impale every area on your body that you have touched on mine." Her tone dropped menacingly. "Do not make the mistake of assuming that I am bluffing."

The succubus jerked her hand back. "Playing hard to get, I see."

"This threat extends for our entire acquaintanceship, Demon."

"Elf?"

Elf perked, looking completely nonchalant despite the conversation she was having, her ears twitching a little to listen to the teacher better. He arched an eyebrow before pointing behind her. "You're researching Morpheus with Crim. Just move to the seat behind you and you'll be with him."

The goblin boy? His name was 'Crim'?

Well, it had to be better than sitting next to Demon.

Elf quickly gathered her things, glaring at the succubus before sitting next to the one-eyed goblin behind them.

Crim looked over at her, a smile playing across his lips. The elf looked up at him, scowling, suddenly wondering how much of Demon's abuse he had noticed. For his sake, he had better not be getting the wrong idea of what Elf would be willing to do to pleasure others. If he were getting the wrong idea, _he_ would be the one getting a pencil in an uncomfortable place.

He dipped his head respectfully, that smile still on his face, before he looked back at the front of the class.

Elf brushed herself off, frowning distantly at the whiteboard and only breaking out of her haze once she had the instructions to the unnecessarily difficult project she was supposed to do with this one-eyed goblin.

Speaking of which, Elf became awkwardly aware of said one-eyed goblin looking over her shoulder at the instructions. "Looks like we'll need to look at the library for this, but we have a good… four months before the teacher wants anything."

Elf frowned up at him, shying away to get more personal space, and packed her bag, noting that the rest of the class was getting ready to leave.

"Very well. We must research Morpheus, correct?" She dipped her head, frowning at the goblin suspiciously. "Meet me at the library after seventh period. The theology section is at the back—I have no classes during seventh period, so I shall begin working early."

"Don't act so excited."

She crossed her arms defensively, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "It would do you well to only concentrate on the assignment. Something that the general student body has not yet realized is that I came here to learn, not to socialize. Do not be a part of that majority."

The goblin rolled his eye. "I can see that this will be a fun partnership already."

"I do not go out of my way to make things _fun_." Elf huffed softly before taking her copy of the instructions. The goblin smirked despite himself. "Oh wipe that off of your face! You know what I meant!"

The one-eyed goblin shrugged his shoulders before slinging his bag over his shoulders. "Alright, you don't have to be friendly. Just be in the library after seventh period. And bring any other homework you have. We might be in there for a while."

Elf nodded tersely and trotted out of the door. Patch walked up to his brother, frowning after the purple-haired girl, and crossed his arms.

"Brother, why are you still smiling? The elf seems like a pain to work with," he said softly, folding up the instructions to his project into his pocket, presumably not to touch them again until a night before the first draft was due.

"A total pain. But did you notice what Demon was pulling on her?"

Patch frowned, ears twitching, and Crim started leading him out of the class. "Brother, I didn't know that you were into stuff like that. But anyway, I don't think she looked eager to have Demon's hands all over her—I doubt she'll let you do it."

Crim blinked in surprise, then his eye widened as he quickly shook his head. "What? No! I mean, she managed to fend for herself really effectively. She wasn't the usual damsel in distress." He smiled, crossing his arms and starting towards their next class. "It'll be a pain to work with her, but it'll be interesting."

"…Are we even sure it's a girl?"

"…" Crim frowned. "Come to think of it, I have no idea. I just get the feeling that she's a girl."

"It's an elf, Brother. You won't know if it's a girl or a guy until you see it without clothes."

Crim stared thoughtfully at the ground, unable to shake the feeling that he had indeed seen that. That he knew that the elf was a woman.

The feeling faded and he shrugged it off.

"I'll check the dorm tonight, Little Brother. If she's there, then he's a he. If she's not, then she's a she."

"If she's a she, then it looks like you have a shrew on your hands." Patch pulled his hood up, a motion Crim mirrored, as their dean—an old man with white hair and a white cat in his arms—passed by. Neither wanted to be caught out of dress code. "I don't envy you. Tusk seems like a nice girl, so I'm glad with my luck."

"Just make sure you don't get caught making out with her or something." Crim grinned and slipped into their next class. "At least that's one thing I won't have to worry about with the elf."

"True."

The brother sat down next to each other and waited for class to start.


	3. He Should Have Expected That

Red leaned back on her chair, staring at the ceiling with a zombified glaze to her eyes. Halfling had fallen asleep a long time ago and was now snoring softly in the seat behind her, Doppel occasionally leaning over and drawing on his sleeping classmate's head with a smirk. Red foresaw a severe beating on Doppel once Halfling woke up, but she wasn't complaining. Doppel was a jerk, regardless of the fact that he was Blondie's twin.

"Class, turn to page eighty-four."

The two goblins sitting next to her stifled yawns as they turned to the indicated page in the textbook.

Red sighed. Another page on abstinence. What kind of health class was this?

"Now, I know that you're all teenagers, and teenagers like to touch things they shouldn't be touching," the teacher said in that gratingly patronizing way. She primly straightened out her starched white shirt, weirdly ever-present smile stuck in place. Both of the goblins—Red was guessing that they were brothers (they were actually pretty cute…)—exchanged glances, smirks playing across their faces. "But I'm here to tell you why you have to resist those urges, especially you young ladies."

Red wished that there was a window in this room that she could stare out of. She decided to fidget with her pen instead. Maybe draw little pictures on the margins of her textbook.

"I'm not going to tell you what sex is. You shouldn't do it until you're married, so you don't need to know what it is, yes?" That hatefully fake smile looked like it was flash-frozen there. Red wondered if it would move if she poked it. "But remember girls, if any boy touches your 'feminine' areas, even if you don't want him to, you're a dirty whore." The teacher leaned forward, her hands on her knees, and her smile looked like it was from one of those creepy kids' shows. "And none of you want to be dirty whores, do you?"

Red was only half-listening. She glanced over at the goblins next to her, and the one missing his right eye looked secretly appalled, but the one missing his left eye looked like he wasn't even listening.

"Whores won't go anywhere in life. Whores go to the Headmistress and are sent to solitary restriction. Whores are always asking for what they get, and they get a lot."

Red frowned a little, squirming uncomfortably, but she found that she was too scared to object. The last girl who had objected had been dragged away to solitary restriction. She had come back in three weeks without a tongue.

Red would let the crazy teacher keep talking without interruption.

"But just in case you decide to _be_ a dirty whore, here are the facts." The teacher clapped her hands together. "You are the lowest form of life, and you will get a disease and die. Even if you do not get a disease, your fathers are legally allowed to kill you for it."

Wait, what? They were allowed to what?

Oh, right… Yeah, that was actually common knowledge. Of course fathers and husbands were allowed to kill their family. It didn't happen often, but they were allowed to.

"And if they don't kill you as you deserve to be, then you'll be forced to marry the person who you lost yourself to and _they_ will kill you. Or sell you into prostitution. As you deserve to be." That fake smile was still there. "Or as you would deserve to be if you're a dirty whore."

Most of the kids looked uncomfortable, but none were willing to inject their opinion. What she said was true—fathers and husbands were legally capable of having their daughters, wives, and sons killed or sold into slavery—but few were willing to point out the fact that the father or husband actually had to _want_ the person killed. That decision didn't hinge on what some crazy health teacher thought.

Besides, there was a huge social stigma against patriarchs sentencing family members to death, and it was only barely legal at this point. Red suspected that it would be made illegal by the time she graduated.

Demon was the first to raise her hand. Red was actually surprised that anyone dared to—the teacher looked rabid enough to bite someone.

"Yes?"

"Can you get pregnant your first time?"

The room got cold. Red had to admit that she was impressed—Demon could be seriously beaten or something worse for asking anything that implied she was considering sex out of marriage.

And anyone who got that crazy teacher's grin to freeze like that and have the color drain from her face was okay in Red's book. She'd have to hang out with Demon that night.

Demon put her hand down, leaning forward and propping her head on her fists. "Well, can you?"

"…" The teacher picked up a marker from her desk and started to fidget with it. "…No."

She turned around to the whiteboard and started writing out what she said. "You can't get pregnant your first time, and you can't get pregnant until you are a full adult by your species' definition. An elf can't get pregnant until she is one hundred and thirty, a goblin can't be pregnant until she is seventeen, a human can't get pregnant until she is twenty, and so on and so forth."

Finally, some actual health education.

Red leaned down and started taking notes.

---

"Finally, you are here."

Elf looked up from a circle of books on the ground, crossing delicate arms and glaring as Crim put his backpack on the ground. "Last period ended seven minutes ago."

"The teacher was slow to let us out." He sat on the ground with the elf, glancing through the books she had already taken from the shelf. "What have we got?"

"Little to nothing." Elf scowled at him as though it were his fault. Crim could already tell how much he'd enjoy working with this girl. "There are only books about the Olympians, but no one was assigned the major gods. Element probably did not wish to anger them."

"Don't worry. There are temples and shrines all over the town—we'll just sign up to go there this weekend."

Elf stiffened slightly, then frowned and looked away, crossing thin arms. "I refuse to go to the town. They strip-search the students returning from those excursions. I prefer my privacy to be respected, thank you."

Crim sighed, but he couldn't really bring himself to be exasperated by that. He had been reluctant to deal with someone making him take his clothes off for them, too. "Don't worry. We can always skip out on the registering for the trip." Crim pulled a book out of the shelf in front of them, checking it for any information on minor deities. "Demon was telling my brother about it in Health. Some of the monitors and some of the teachers are willing to turn a blind eye if you don't get a permission slip to go to the town, and if you never got a permission slip, you're not registered for a strip-search. As long as you've never gotten in trouble before and the teachers and monitors you're with don't think you're going to try to run away or bring contraband in or something, you don't have to go through it."

Elf frowned, hugging her knees casually. "Does that not defeat the purpose of a reformatory?"

"I don't question it. Half the rules here make no sense anyway—I'm not partial to following rules that make no sense." Crim sighed at the book and put it away, taking out another. "I think that Scar and Nature are in charge of the trip to town this weekend. Scar will be reluctant to go against the rules, but if I explain that you don't want to be strip-searched, he'll understand. He never liked enforcing a system that subjugates and violates girls. Nature hates this place and does everything in her power to help out the nice students."

"Who is Nature?"

"Biology and Natural Sciences teacher." Crim flicked through the pages of the book in his lap. "I think this may have something. It has a family tree in it, so maybe we'll find Morpheus in there somewhere. So are we going to town on Saturday?"

"If we must." Elf crossed thin arms, scowling defiantly. "But I will not enjoy it."

"I never asked you to." Crim rolled his eye. "This project is going to take a lot of work. We'd better get used to being with each other."

Elf huffed, then sidled up to Crim, looking down at the book in his lap and taking notes.

---

"Why are we coming along?"

"Because you need to hang out with someone besides your brother and I figure that if I bother Drow enough, he'll actually say more than two words."

Drow scowled, glaring from silver eyes and ducking his head to hide behind white hair. Patch glanced at him, frowning thoughtfully, then glanced up at the red-haired girl leading him and the dark elf away from the stone buildings of the boarding school to the field on the front side of it, all the way towards the fences that closed the reformatory off from the thin dirt road that led to the town after a day's walk.

"Hey, am I about to be brought in on some trouble-making my first day?"

"I dunno. I'm just bringing you off to a bunch of other boys. We're probably going to do something stupid."

"Cool. My brother's a straight arrow, so I need to stir up enough trouble for the both of us."

Red glanced back at him, smirking, and Drow rolled his eyes, pulling his hood up and still not saying anything.

"Hey, look who the cat dragged in!"

Patch looked up at the barbed wire fence they were approaching, noting that a few boys he recognized from his dorm were sitting against it. A halfling kid who Patch knew to have a single-person bedroom and who had his windows barred and his door locked every night (Crim hadn't been too eager to find out why that was, and frankly, neither was Patch), a dwarf, and a dark-skinned human.

"Hey. You're in the room above us, right?" The black-skinned human stood up and held out his hand. "Coal."

"Patch." Patch clapped his hand against the human's, gripping it tightly before pulling away. "Yeah, I'm above your room with my brother."

"We cannae 'ear ye gettin' ready fer bed. Th' insulation leaves a loot t' be d'sired." Dwarf said, glancing up at the fence. "Coal, if yer going t' try t' jump this, then ye c'n count me out."

"What, you're scared?" Halfling smirked, pulling at the fence. "The administrators of this concentration camp are just a lot of hot air."

Red shook out her hair. "Halfling, Elf was talking about how some girl in her class was beaten so hard that she bled down to the chair. I'm not interested in that."

"You sound like my brother." Patch shoved his hands in his pockets, smirking, eyes sparkling with charm. "They probably stage that stuff to scare us. I mean, I've only met a couple of people who actually look like they need a reformatory."

"Why would any of us be here if we didn't need it?" Coal sat back down against the fence and everyone followed suit, even Drow.

"Well, I know my big brother doesn't need this place. He'll be off being the youngest president ever or something in ten years at most. You'll see." Patch reclined lazily on the ground. "And I'll be off roaming the world. That sounds fun."

Drow rolled his eyes but said nothing. Halfling started climbing up the fence.

"You guys can stay here with your tails between your legs, but I'm going off to the town."

"You're going to get busted, Halfling. They'll have your head."

No one got up to stop him. Red rolled her eyes and shook her head, lying down next to Patch as Halfling got up to the barbed wire.

"Come on. You're going to get yourself hurt up there."

Halfling made a rude gesture and started squirming past the barbed wire.

A tremor past through the metal.

The halfling howled in pain and Coal jumped away from the fence, shouting, and an alarm roared through the school.


	4. Face It, Guys, Your Lives Suck

"Crim?"

Crim and Elf looked up, frowning in confusion when they saw Turquoise standing above their little study circle, her mouth pulled into a tight frown. "That's you, right?"

The goblin glanced at Elf, then back at the blue-haired monitor. "Yeah. Is there a problem?"

"You're brother's in trouble. And Elf, Red's in trouble too."

Elf and Crim glanced each other, and as one, they sighed.

"What did they get mixed up in?"

"It looks like they were trying to break out of the school. They keep saying that they weren't, but they need you guys to vouch to get out of confinement."

Crim rubbed his face, then stood, holding out a hand for Elf. The hand was accepted and the goblin helped the paler creature up. "By the gods, we haven't been here for two days and he already needs me to bail him out…"

"I haven't known this human for two days and already she needs me to assist her to stay away from disciplinary action…" both Elf and Crim grumbled softly.

Turquoise smiled sympathetically and ushered them out of the library. "They were both found lying down on the grass, so you're probably not going to get too much scrutiny from the dean. And do you know who I should go to for Coal, Dwarf, and Halfling? Half-Elf came and vouched for Drow, so he's out, but Coal and Dwarf are both caught up and Halfling doesn't have a roommate."

"I am willing to vouch for Coal and Dwarf." The words popped Elf before she could stop them, and it wasn't clear why. The student had only known them for a day, and vouching was a dangerous process usually reserved for close friends, though it seemed as though there was a social rule that required roommates to vouch for each other…

Elf didn't find that she wanted to take back her offer, though. She could trust them.

"You sure?" Turquoise frowned a little, already leading both of them out of the library towards the main office. "If they mess up again during the vouching period, you're going to get in serious trouble. Really. One of the girls went lame after what they gave her for a bad vouch, it was that brutal."

"I am certain." Elf primly smoothed the wrinkles out of the blue cloak. "I won't vouch for Halfling, however."

"Good move. He's a little psycho." Turquoise rubbed her palms on her cloak. "It looks like he's going to have to deal with solitary restriction."

"He seems like he would be able to handle it," Elf said wryly. "Do you think that they will mutilate him?"

"No. They only do that to the girls. The most he'll get is SR, but it's possible he'll get off with just a beating if no one vouches."

Turquoise pushed the door to the main office open, revealing five very unhappy-looking teenagers, all of which not sitting down despite the presence of a perfectly comfortable couch.

"Brother?"

Crim frowned, making a beeline for his little brother and already reaching out to see if he was hurt. "What happened?"

"Save it for the Rap."

Crim was only barely paying attention, checking his guilty-looking brother over carefully with barely concealed concern in his eye. "Rap?"

Patch shifted uncomfortably, trying to hide something from view, but Crim had already seen it. The seat of his little brother's pants was soaked through with blood.

Crim swallowed hard and bit back his words.

"Big Brother, it's not that big of a deal…" Patch murmured softly, shifting so the blood was back out of view.

"No one's told you about the Raps?"

Elf, noting that Crim was quietly doting on his brother and blind to what was around him, smoothly picked up the slack while walking to Red with a disapproving scowl. "No. No one has informed any of us of these 'Raps.'"

Turquoise whistled softly. "Well, if they didn't tell you about them, then they don't want you to know. Elf, you're scheduled to have one with Ms. Feelgood."

Elf frowned, examining the quiet Red, Coal, and Dwarf, noting that they had blood as well. "Ms. Feelgood?"

"The health teacher. I think she changed her name when she came here." Turquoise frowned, crossing her arms. "Sign the people you're going to vouch out, get Red to your room, and go to the Dining Hall. Your Rap's going to be there."

"Of course, of course." Elf let Red go, frowning at the blood and wondering if she should feel apprehensive about vouching for three different people if she could, at the very least, be beaten just as savagely if any one of them stepped a toe out of line in the next two weeks. She wasn't worried.

"And they're going to need to turn up for punishment or you'll get in trouble as their voucher."

"Of course." Elf wasn't even listening. "Where should I sign them out?"

Elf would come to wish that she had asked more questions.

---

Elf walked in the Dining Hall to see student going to the center of the unusually empty room to sit in a big circle of what looked like twenty to thirty chairs. There was no person that Elf recognized—it was all just sophomores, juniors, seniors, and maybe a couple unfamiliar freshmen. The health teacher—Ms. Feelgood—sat in one of the chairs, her smile still frozen on her face, and her legs crossed, her hands gripping her knees so hard that her knuckles were white.

Elf frowned, expecting a seminar on academic integrity or some such thing, and sat down. Slowly, everyone settled in their seats.

As if a signal had been given, one of the students, a blond elf girl, stood up and blazed towards a black-haired human sitting a few chairs away from her. Elf jerked in surprise, wondering if this was a planned demonstration for the students of if the elf girl was just unstable and had cracked. "You know what, Black? I'm sick of dealing with your crap. Every year it's always the same—you come to classes ten minutes late blabbing about how you got lost or you were helping some freshmen to their classes and I just want to cuss you out 'cuz you know it's against the rules to come late and you flaunt it!"

"Yeah! And then you just sit with me and my friends at lunch without an appointment!" an orc boy with red-blond hair stood up and ran besides the elf, glaring down at the student, Black. "You know that's against the rules!"

Wait, one had to make an appointment to sit with someone at lunch?

"Yeah, and I'm sick of having to haul my ass over to the main office to vouch for you after you get another lateness!" A blond human joined the growing wall of angry students. "One of these days I'm going to have to sit on the stump for your sorry hide!"

Black, for his part, looked positively bewildered and gripped the seat of his chair, skin draining of color. Elf looked at Ms. Feelgood in shock, expecting some sort of intervention, but her smile remained frozen as always as she watched the students gang up on the boy.

The dark-skinned, red-haired girl besides Elf burst into howling cries. Elf jumped in surprise, looking over at the girl with bafflement to see that she was hunched over, tears pouring from her eyes, and sobs coming from deep within her. Elf had never heard someone weep like that. It was as if an infant, with their cries using the entirety of their lungs, had retained their bawling abilities into adolescence and were using them to their full potential.

"WHY WOULD HE DO THAT—" the torrential sobbing drowned and garbled up her words, so it was a bit before Elf could make it out again, "—MUFFIN, I'M SORRY!"

Elf stared with a mixture of shock and disgust as the girl's sinuses emptied themselves on the floor, mixed with saltwater, and the garbled howling kept going like a broken radio with its volume on 'high' and broadcasting only static.

More people joined in on verbally beating Black, until he had at least seven kids on him, and two more students started crying and shrieking just like the girl beside Elf, each one of them wailing about different things, but only a few snippets of words were actually understandable.

"…ALONE AND NO ONE IS…"

"…IT WAS ONLY A FEW! WHY DID THEY SEND ME…"

"…HATE HATE HATE IT H…"

"…NO HOPE LEFT!…"

"…MUFFIN!… KILLED…"

"…WHY DID SHE ALWAYS LIKE HIM BEST?!"

Elf slammed delicate hands to even more delicate ears, trying to protect her breaking eardrums and looking up at Ms. Feelgood pleadingly, begging her to step in and stop this madness. Her smile remained frozen, and she was talking to the students, though Elf was barely able to hear her over the din.

"…Yes, that's good, Braid. That's good. Let out your emotions like a good girl. Black, are you listening to your peers?"

…By the gods, was she _egging this on?!_

A half-hour in, Black started to cry under the pressure that the students, now a total of nine attackers, put him under, and yet they didn't stop. The noise was deafening.

Elf turned her face down to look at her knees and kept her hands clamped firmly on her ears, praying that this torturous ordeal would end soon.

---

"Who did this to you?"

Patch's ears were light red as his big brother rewrapped his wounds properly. Crim, long since abandoning modesty, was diligent in his work and didn't seem aware that his brother was completely naked so he could do this. Luckily, Scar had been willing to turn a blind eye to a closed door in this case.

"…You know. The chancellor. Dragon."

"That woman with the tattoo on her face and the light blue eye and dark blue eye?"

Patch nodded, awkwardly fidgeting with the edge of his sheets. "She did the beatings herself. By the gods, she's got an arm on her."

"I can see that."

"I don't want to know where she learned how to beat guys so hard."

The crack got a little smile out of Crim, but it disappeared with another look at his brother's raw and bloody flesh. "You should be more careful." He wiped the blood away gently with a damp cloth and picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol, dabbing a little on the wounds and provoking hisses of pain from his brother.

"I told you: I didn't do anything! It was all that psycho halfling." Patch frowned and shifted uncomfortably. "I was just on the grass with that cute redhead and he tried to jump the fence."

"Well, now they're going to give you another ritual punishment we know nothing about. Can't you pick your company carefully?" Crim picked up a roll of bandages, gently wrapping up his brother's wounds.

"I didn't think that he'd try to jump the fence. If it's any consolation, we found out that it's electric. He was fried when the staff came running at us."

Crim frowned, tightening the bandaging. "Just try to be more careful. You're too old for your big brother to come down and help you out of whatever trouble you've gotten yourself into."

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Still, be careful." Crim was finished with the bandages, so he stood up and handed over his little brother's clothes. "Here you go."

Patch couldn't get dressed fast enough, but he winced every time something brushed his bandaging. "Why did the elf vouch for Red, Coal, and Dwarf?" he asked, eager to change the subject. "She doesn't know any of them well, and she doesn't look nearly cool enough to be willing to deal with the crap that can be sent her way."

"You're right, but she was really calm about it." Crim helped his brother dress patiently, making sure he remembered to put a towel in the seat of Patch's pants for cushioning. "Don't get me wrong—she's a self-important, confrontational pain—but I can't help but be really interested in how this is going to play out. It looks like there's going to be fireworks with the way things are going."

"As long as you don't have your _other_ eye gouged out, do what you want." Patch winced in pain and carefully lay down in his bed, keeping from sitting. He wouldn't be sitting properly for a while.

"It's bad enough to swing my head around to make up for one lost eye—I don't need to lose two."

The door opened without warning. Both Crim and Patch jumped in surprise.

"It's almost time for sign-in. You have to keep your door open now."

Scar looked a little troubled over something, but he left without another word, leaving the door swinging behind him.

"Ugh. Sign in."

Patch frowned, pushing himself off the bed awkwardly, trying not to move anything that would stretch his lash marks. "Hey, Big Brother?"

Crim glanced over at him. "Yeah?"

"I swiped something from the chancellor's room."

Crim stiffened, eye going wide with fear.

"Don't worry! It was just an apple. I bet even she couldn't make a stolen _apple_ an excuse to beat the ever-loving daylights out of me." Patch awkwardly toddled to his desk, opening one of the drawers and pulling out a ripe red apple. "I'm going to sign in. Consider this my thanks for helping me out, Big Brother."

He tossed the apple and Crim caught it easily. The elder brother frowned disapprovingly as the younger smiled sheepishly and scampered out of the room.

Crim shook his head and sighed, sitting down at his bed. He wasn't supposed to go to sign in until after his brother came back. That could be a while.

He absently brought the apple to his lips, making a little knick in its flesh with his teeth and licking at the juice that came out.

_Heat was rising. Two intertwined bodies were one, their breath, their groans, their very heartbeats in perfect sync with one another. He was afraid. Terrified, actually. Love so strong it threatened to burst his heart was rising in his throat, all for the delicate but so strong creature beneath him. And when the dawn came, anything could happen. He could lose her. He could forget her. He couldn't deny those possibilities._

_But his fear was soothed. She knew it was there and kissed him, stroking his face even as the passion rose. "I love you." _

_The darkness only gave them a few precious hours. That would be enough._

_"I love you." He gasped, letting the pale creature bury her face in his neck when crescendo was reached. "I love you, Vaarsuvius."_

Crim blinked in surprise, staring at the floor with the dribbling apple held tightly in his hands.

"What the hell does she put in these?" He gingerly tossed the apple in the garbage, his hands shaking a little. Chills rippled through his skin, and he absently leaned forward, pulling a water bottle out from under his bed and taking a long drink from it, washing the taste of the drugged apple from his mouth.

He put the water bottle back, the memory of the illusion already fading from his mind, and frowned at the trashcan until Patch came back. He forgot the hallucination soon after.


	5. No Project is Worth this Trouble

A fist went straight into Elf's stomach, sending her sprawled to the ground and knocking out the wind.

"Demon!"

The disapproving tone of their teacher made Demon jerk away from her silent gloating, glaring.

Elf sat up, rubbing the back of her head, and two strong hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her up firmly yet gently. "This is a sequence of punches and blocks performed with a partner, Demon, not a battle."

The teacher, Sharp, frowned and brushed Elf off, giving her a firm pat on the shoulder before letting go, intense black eyes fixed on both girls. "I don't want to see you straying from the sequence again."

Elf looked back at the scowling Demon, keeping her smirk from her face. The succubus may think that she can do whatever she wanted to her classmates, but Sharp was obviously a much more attentive teacher than she had expected. He was definitely one of the older teachers—his hair and long mustache were speckled and streaked with gray—and maybe that gave him an edge on the others.

"Class is over. Demon, I want to speak with you. Patch, come see me."

Elf wiped her sweat-streaked forehead, taking a deep breath and scampering towards the girl's showers, eager to change out of her Physical Arts clothes and take a shower. Yet despite her excitement, she took a moment to look back, curious as to why Sharp wanted to see Patch.

She saw just enough to tell that the teacher was sending the limping boy to the nurse.

"Girls!"

Elf jumped in surprise, then zipped into the shower room to just see a bunch of doors, and Ms. Feelgood was lining all the girls against the walls. "One per shower! No funny business!"

Red flashed Elf a look, rolling her eyes, and Elf just nodded in agreement. Apparently, Ms. Feelgood saw. And she didn't like it.

"You're treading on thin ice as it is, Sluts!"

The woman moved faster than Elf had ever seen. In one moment, Red was holding a crimson handprint on her cheek, crying out in surprise, and the next, Elf felt a sharp pain in her face and she recoiled.

Ms. Feelgood still had her hand up, eyes wild but smile fixed in place as if she had had an overdose of Botox. "I see how you both hang around those boys."

"I don't—"

"I saw you sneaking in the library with that green boy, Slut!"

The teacher slapped Elf across the face again. Every other girl was silent, some having the grace to pretend that they weren't staring, others openly gawking. And the teacher still had that awful, awful smile stuck to her face.

A flare of rage lit up Elf's abdomen, making her fingers twitch and tingle for something she didn't know.

Something powerful shifted in her blood. Elf clenched her teeth. The power pawed out, but there wasn't focus—whatever was dormant remained dormant.

"You may just be reading together for a project now, but I know girls like you: you'll be stripping down within the week."

Elf's muscles tensed furiously, hands clenching into fists, and Red crouched to pounce to protect her roommate's honor.

"Ms. Feelgood?"

A familiar strong hand rested on Elf's shoulder, firm enough to keep her in place but not so firm that it was painful. Elf glanced up to see that Sharp was in the doorway and their eyes met for a moment, the stern black gaze informing her that her teacher knew just what was going on and what she had been ready to do.

Elf dipped her head proudly, not feeling the need to shrug his hand off. She had a feeling that she had found the one adult in this gods-forsaken reformatory that she actually respected.

"I believe that you have an extracurricular class starting in ten minutes. I can make sure that the girls take singular showers."

The woman pursed her lips, smile still in place but face getting red, but it seemed like even she couldn't talk back to Sharp.

With a dip of her head, she left.

The teacher released Elf's shoulder. "Get cleaned up and dressed, girls. No sharing showers."

He didn't even have to watch the girls going into the doors. No one was going to disobey him.

Each time a girl came out of a shower room, her hair wet and a towel wrapped tightly around her body, he would look away respectfully and gesture to the dressing room. When the girls came out, clean and dressed, he just bowed his head and they were released.

Elf would have thought that she would be uncomfortable being clothed in only a towel, and she was, but she was glad that it was Sharp instead of Ms. Feelgood, gender regardless. With Ms. Feelgood, it felt like she was being ravished by the teacher's eyes. At least Sharp didn't stare.

No one spoke to each other until they were at the dorms.

* * *

"There you are."

Crim rolled his eye, readjusting his bag on his shoulder as he walked up to meet the purple-haired thorn in his side in front of a plain white bus with crowds of other kids.

"They told me that my 'labor therapy' would last for four hours. It lasted for six." He rolled his shoulders, trying to work the stiffness out of them. "I had to run and get my stuff, so I'm five minutes late. The bus still hasn't left, so I don't see the issue."

Elf frowned, crossing thin arms and purple brow furrowing. "Simply do not speak to me until we are at the temple."

Crim rolled his eye again, counting the days until the blasted project was over and he could get away from the pointy-eared bitch.

People filed in the bus slowly, and Crim could see a bunch of other pairs of partners coming on, his brother and a blushing half-orc among them. Patch flashed him a look, giving him a thumbs-up quickly followed by a glance towards Elf and a sympathetic 'sucks to be you, Big Brother' look.

Crim waved him off, following Elf on the bus where Nature stood beside the driver, checking names off on a clipboard.

The blond elf woman (thankfully not androgynous) looked from her board, looking down at both the teenagers, zeroing in with a sudden uncomfortable intensity.

Crim instinctively shrank back, the weirdest instinct telling him that there was something wrong, but that couldn't be right. Nature was famously the nicest teacher in the school.

Elf didn't have the same sense, instead glancing around the bus to make sure that none of the Chancellor's main lackeys were there. "We want privacy, and our records are impeccable. Would you mind not registering our presence?"

Nature's eyes lingered on Elf for a moment too long. "Don't worry, kid." She gave a cheerful smile, then looked between Crim and Elf, eyes sparkling as if she knew something they didn't. She probably did. She _was_ a teacher, after all. "Just don't come back on the bus. There's a hole through the fence by the river—you know, next to the path to the school orchard. Squeeze through there before sign in and don't get caught."

Elf nodded, starting to the back of the bus, and Crim hurried after her, eager without reason to be away from the teacher.

A smile played across Nature's face. "Hasn't even been two weeks. New record."

The bus driver looked up, only vaguely paying attention. "Hmm?"

"Nothing."

Elf sat next to the window in the back of the bus, pulling the blue hood over her head and staring outside. Crim reluctantly sat beside her, keeping so their bodies were a couple inches apart. The bus rumbled to life and started rolling down the path past the barbed-wire gate, shoving the students around the bus. The smell of flowers, wine, and honey enveloped him, stirring something he didn't know in the back of his head.

He looked down at his bag, the smell making him increasingly woozy, and he snatched an apple out of it. It was an apple Halfling had given Patch as a reluctant peace offering, which Patch had given to Crim because, as he joked, "The asshole probably drugged it."

He took a small tentative bite out of it, wondering if he would be able to keep it down.

Crim's stomach started doing twists and he saw the world spinning a little. Electricity was crackling in the air, and he was the only one who felt it.

"_Vaarsuvius, I'm not going to wait around and play games. There's no time for that anymore."_

"_I am not playing games, Redcloak. I love you." _

Crim swallowed, the taste of apples spreading across his tongue, and he dizzily tried to shake away the hallucinations, the apple falling from his hand and rolling on the floor. He would _kill_ his brother for giving him whatever drug was in this thing…

"_Goodbye, Brother."_

"Are you alright?"

Elf was looking at him. Her face was different. Adult. Sharp. Tired. Aged. Mature.

She was beautiful nonetheless.

Violet eyes were just getting more vivid, getting more haunting, and he felt the insatiable need to hold her and kiss her and a wave of relief swept his heart away, as if he had thought he had lost her and didn't believed he could survive without her.

"Crim?"

She reached out and touched his arm, and something exploded in his head at the brush of her fingers.

_Vaarsuvius wrapped delicate arms around his neck, kissing his tearstained cheeks and whispering in his ear. "My love, I promise you: I will stand by your side." Her hand brushed against his eye-patch, caressing his face. _

"_Don't promise that. You know what can happen."_

_Vaarsuvius tilted her head to the side, still touching his face. "Yes. I know." She leaned in, their lips a breath apart. "We threw logic to the wind the moment we shared a bed. Do you expect common sense to influence me now?" _

_She went on tiptoes and kissed him, stroking away the tears while running her tongue along his lips. He took a sharp breath, holding her close and growling softly. "I don't want to lose you too."_

_The elf smiled, starting to undo the clasps of his armor. "You will not. I promise." _

"Here, have some water."

One of the school-issued water bottles was put to his lips. Crim drank without protest, the hallucinations melting away and the dizziness leaving.

"If you are ill, you should have told Nature."

Crim blinked, shaking his head in confusion, and Scar frowned in concern, putting the cap back on the bottle he had given the student. "Are you okay?"

Elf crossed her arms, glaring. "Are you drunk?"

"Yes and no." Crim rubbed his temples. "Sorry. I was feeling a little sick last night. I guess I didn't shake it off, but I'm fine now. And I'm not on drugs."

Scar frowned, letting the water in the bottle go from one end to the other. "I believe you."

Crim glanced up, noticing that the students were filing off the bus.

"You should see Nature after the trip. And stay hydrated." Scar stood up, jerking his head. "And I don't suggest trying to slip past a strip search again. The Chancellor is going to start checking herself." His voice dropped so that it was barely audible. "I hope I'm not making a mistake in trusting you, Crim."

Crim nodded, his memory of the hallucination already getting fuzzy. Had he been daydreaming about having sex with Elf? Ew. Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew…

He shook off the image and stood up, ignoring his scowling partner and starting down the bus.

When they got out, Elf turned on him. "If you have come to gather information while using drugs, then I swear—"

"Don't worry. I don't do drugs." Crim glanced around, noticing the lines of stores until he saw the positively massive columned temple at the end of the road. "Listen, are you going to razz me about a little flu or are you going to help me find out about Morpheus?"

Elf just sighed irritably and followed him.

They stepped into the temple, only to see ornate shrines to the twelve main Olympians, all where their throne would be if it had been Olympus.

Crim kept a good distance from Hestia's shrine, reluctant to get burned on the blazing fire, and looked for a door to the minor gods. He saw one skillfully built between the shrines to Zeus and Poseidon, difficult to make out.

"This way."

He trotted to the door and slipped through, closely followed by his partner.

The next room was huge and round, students milling through the rooms as if in a circuit. One dark doorway was roped off, and the other rooms were labeled neatly with the name of a god.

"The forbidden one is most likely dedicated to Hecate."

The statement jolted Redcloak a little, reminding him that Elf was capable of saying things other than nags or insults.

He shifted uncomfortably, the implications of her words sinking in.

"Hecate's the witch goddess, right?"

The chill passed through them, making them shiver in tandem.

"…Shall we go to the shrine to Morpheus and the Oneiroi, Crim?"

"Sure."

They both scurried to their god's room, the bitterness of before forgotten.

A statue of a man with giant black wings lounging on a bed of poppies stood at the center of the room, candles and incense surrounding him. He was sculpted carefully, naked and anatomically correct in every way. For some weird reason, Crim didn't like the idea of Elf looking at the naked form too long.

Was that jealousy flickering in gut?

He tried to shrug it off as just him being rightfully concerned that she would get beaten if a teacher came in and saw her looking at something that could be considered sexual.

He nudged Elf gently away from the sculpture. "It looks like the old carvings in the walls are in Ancient. How are your grades in Runes?"

"I will translate as best as I can."

"Alright. I'll see what I can dig up in the holy books."

Crim looked around the room, finding the old, giant books placed lovingly on pedestals around the bed of poppies.

As he walked towards them, he took a moment to admire the room. The walls were carefully designed with mosaics, different color stones detailing the image of a man and a woman hovering over the sleeping statue, with two other flying shadows swooping across the walls, both wearing black wings, one spreading fear and dementia and the other spreading madness and mania. All the way, there was nothing but poppies, and the Runic writing on the mosaics was so small and artfully done that it blended into the artwork, making it look more ethereal.

"Nice craftsmanship."

"Indeed."

While Elf concentrated on the writing, Crim opened the holy books carefully, treating them with just as much tenderness as a cleric would. People were trusted to touch the books, but if they ended up damaged, then everyone was punished with the wrath of the gods.

For some reason, he felt at home with religious scripture. He settled into reading with more interest than most teenagers and relaxed.

They didn't notice the passing of time as they carefully took notes and kept up with their work. Around them, the teenagers had slowly filtered out and the sun was beginning to set. They were alone in the windowless shrine to dreams.

"Really, Dragon, I already checked the rooms…"

"Yeah, well, you like going really soft on this stuff, Nature."

The familiar chilling voice shocked both the teens out of their reveries, and they quickly glanced at each other, eyes wide.

"I'll be quick. I'm just checking for kids who think they can slip past my systems."

"The Chancellor."

Elf and Crim zipped together, clutching their work to their chests. They both looked at each other and hid their notebooks in the dream god's bed of poppies, trying to think of what to do and looking for a place to hide. There was none.

"Dragon, really, the bus is being delayed…"

"Don't worry. It'll be quick. I'll start with the shrine to Thanatos."

There was a shuffle as someone entered another shrine. Without a pause, Crim felt a deathly tight grip around his wrist and he was suddenly yanked out of the shrine and they were running in the main room, fire at their heels. He knew where he was being led.

They both ducked into Hecate's closed-off shrine.

His throat closed with fear.

The dark room hid most things from view, something he was glad for. The less he saw, the better.

The place vibrated with witchcraft. It was frightening, as if the mere fact he had stepped into this place confirmed that he was a witch and he would be dragged off to be burned.

Elf didn't seem to share his nearly paralyzing fear and instead pressed him to the craggy cave-like wall, putting cool hands over his mouth.

As he strained his ears to hear the Chancellor's steps through the shrines, he became painfully aware that his and Elf's bodies were pressed together. He could feel her thin chest rise and fall, and the gentle brush of warm breath blew against his ear, sending little tremors down his spine. Had it been anyone else, he would have noted that it was the closest to making out with a girl that he'd gotten to.

Come to think of it, he was still noting it. It was actually kind of hot.

He blushed and tried desperately to not think about it and just concentrated on the thought of getting beaten when they were found, and then getting burnt at a stake. That reigned in his hormones quite a bit.

There was a source of light in the room, now that his eye was adjusted. He concentrated on looking at it.

It was a large pool of water, glowing with inner moonlight that lit up the statue standing forebodingly above it, though with every little ripple, the light was fractured a bit.

The statue was of three women. A child, a young lady, and an old woman. The crone was between the child and the lady, hand outstretched, and each face was hidden in shadow. What little he saw of them was well-crafted, a key clutched in the child's hand, a snake in the lady's, and a stone torch, the fire carved carefully, was clutched in the hand the crone held above her.

Hanging from the crone's outstretched fingers was a necklace with the Lethe Academy's emblem on it.

"Dragon, you've checked all the shrines. Can we go to the bus?"

"I've checked all but _one_, Nature. Go to your bus. This won't take long."

Elf and Crim exchanged frightened glances.

This time, it was Crim who took charge. He grabbed Elf's wrist and zipped to the pool beneath the witch goddess. Without so much as a protest, they both quickly dove in as quietly as possible with every intention of just hiding under the surface until the tattooed woman left.

It was much deeper than he had thought.

They grasped each other's hands tightly, going deeper and deeper in the pool until there was a lit underwater tunnel. Crim's instinct told him to keep going, so he did, checking to see that Elf was still conscious.

The water was surprisingly warm. Crim could imagine just sinking further into it and falling asleep, letting his lungs fill up and his vision cloud…

Now Elf was leading. Her grip was tight on his wrist as she pulled him through the tunnel, face getting visibly discolored, bubbles leaking from her mouth, air needed immediately…

The tunnel opened up and Elf swam up, pulling Crim with her.

They broke water at once.

They were in an underwater cavern in a giant air pocket. They both breathed heavily for a while, treading the glowing water.

"I can't believe we just did that!"

Elf blinked in surprise, wiping her wet hair from her eyes, and started to laugh from shock. "We are going to be disciplined extremely harshly if she finds out."

"Then we'll run off to Athens and hide. It's the perfect plan!" Crim was laughing too, eye sparkling hysterically. "We'll change our names and say we're adults."

"Wouldn't it be rather difficult to hide when you have such specific characteristics?" She asked, grinning and lightly touching his eye patch. The feel of her fingers was familiar, and maybe it was the hysteria, but Crim felt somehow relieved by her closeness.

"I'll switch it to my other eye and say I'm my brother. I'm sure no one will notice."

Elf chuckled, and neither of them realized that they were still holding hands.

They took a minute, catching their breath and trying to keep treading water as slowly as possible, conserving their energy. After that, they remembered they were supposed to dislike each other.

Crim cleared his throat, looking away. Elf scowled at him, rolling violet eyes up to the stone ceiling. "Shall we attempt to swim back? I am certain that she has finished her search by now…"

Crim looked down at the water, frowning. "There are two tunnels."

Elf looked down as well, cocking her head. Finally, she let out a frustrated sigh. "Neither of us know which we came from, do we?"

"I wasn't paying enough attention."

"Hm."

They both looked up at each other, neither seeming too pleased with the situation.

"Hey, think of it as an adventure. I'll let you pick which way we go."

"Crim, when I came to this school, I assumed I wouldn't be involved in a dangerous escapade to avoid suffering disciplinary action within the first week."

Crim shrugged, cocking an eyebrow. "Which way are we going, Elf?"

"_Make your choice, Reddy. You can't have both."_

"Let us go in this direction."

They both took deep breaths and dove.

Crim was careful to conserve his air, paying more attention to the tunnel they were swimming through. Someone had actually built it. Mosaics covered everything, detailing every story and character in the legends he knew, and some besides.

He subconsciously tightened his grip on Elf's hand.

"_V?"_

_His lover pulled away from him sharply, looking up at the door with shock, hurriedly trying to straighten her clothes. "Oh… Ms. Starshine, I thought you were…"_

"_Were you just making out with him?" The red-haired woman turned her shocked and disgusted eyes to him. "Were you just making out with V?"_

_Fear closed up his throat and the woman advanced. _

"_What the hell do you think you're doing?"_

The tunnel opened up just before they ran out of air and they broke water.

They certainly weren't back in the shrine. A gentle current started pushing them to the side, but using the last of their rapidly diminishing strength, Crim and Elf paddled to the shore, pulling each other out and plopping on the rock.

They both breathed heavily for a long time, not even bothering to waste energy with snarking at each other. Crim suspected that they dozed briefly. It was ridiculously cold—their wet clothes did nothing for the temperature—and they were both shivering by the time they had recovered from their impromptu swim.

Elf propped herself up on pale hands, looking around at the place they had swam to.

She couldn't hold back a small gasp of awe.

They were inside of a giant underground stone cavern. A strange species of glowing lichen that Elf had never seen before grew on the ceiling, giving the appearance of the full night sky without anything to detract from its glory. They were on a small stone elevation, but the majority of the cavern was filled with water, the stream they had climbed out of included, which ran into a bigger river that seemed to go out of the cavern.

The glow from above twinkled gently.

"This is amazing…"

Crim slowly sat up, shivering. "Yeah. It almost makes up for all the trouble we'll be in."

Elf glanced back at him with a dry arch of the eyebrow. "We always have the resources to go back to the 'Run off to Athens' thought."

"I'd have to get my brother. I'd probably be found and crucified while I did that."

He looked off to the side, noticing that the elf was shivering. He sidled up to her and wrapped his wet school cloak around her shoulders, huddling close to gain and provide warmth. She didn't protest.

"You know, I never took you for the 'dodge punishment by breaking into forbidden shrines' type," Crim joked, staring up at the starry ceiling.

"Well, it was better than letting the tyrant strip and beat us both," Elf huffed, crossing thin arms stubbornly. "If she wanted her students to follow her rules, she would not make them so unreasonable."

Crim let out a soft chuckle, allowing himself to loosen up a little with his shrewish lab partner. They'd be back to snarking once the hysteria wore off. "You know, I thought you were one of those grade-obsessed teacher's pets."

"Perish the thought. I will only do as those I respect ask me to, and the opinions of those I do not respect do not matter, so I care little about what grade they give me." Elf primly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I expected you to be just as perverse and sex-obsessed as the rest of the teenage population."

He rolled his eye, used enough to the insults to let it roll off his back. "My brother says I'm repressed. I say I'm focused."

Crim smiled and stood up, carefully trying to keep from slipping. "Come on. If this river is the Lethe, then it can lead us back to school."

"If we are beaten, at least we had an interesting afternoon trying to avoid it." Elf stood up and started stepping carefully towards the river over the wet rock.

"Don't go in the water. It's toxic."

"I realize that."

Elf looked back at him. "Are you coming?"

Crim followed carefully, making sure to stay a healthy distance away from the river. The current looked dangerously fast, like it'd wash him away if he so much as put a foot in there, but despite the danger, he felt himself dozing. He wanted to fall asleep on the rocks, maybe take a sip from the poison river. His eyelids drooped and he glanced up at Elf, noting that she felt similarly.

"_If you fall asleep, you'll never wake up. Get Vaarsuvius out of here."_

He yawned, shaking his head. "How far do you think the school is?"

Elf tiredly rubbed her face. "I'm unsure. We don't know where we are on the river."

Crim looked away for a moment, and out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw someone on the other side of the river, watching them, but when he focused on it, the image was gone.

"Can you think of something to keep us awake?"

"It is strange how… fatigued I feel." Elf shook her head, stifling a yawn. "We should keep talking."

The obvious topic of discussion was to ask each other why they had turned up in the reformatory in the first place. Neither of them were touching that, though.

"You seem close with your brother."

"Of course. He can be an idiot sometimes, but he's still my little brother." Crim concentrated on the thought of Patch, imagining his brother goading him into staying awake. "And by the way, if he gives you an apple, don't eat it."

"Why?"

"I don't know where he gets them, but they almost always turn out bad." Crim shook his head, lightly slapping his face to keep himself awake. "What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

"No. I'm an only child."

"Should have guessed. You come off as one."

"Oh really?" Elf glanced back, arching an eyebrow. "How so, dare I ask?"

"You're not patient. When you have lots of siblings, it's a must."

She huffed, crossing thin arms. "You know nothing about my patience."

"This from the girl who bit my head off for being five minutes late to the bus and five minutes late to a study session in the library."

"That's because you should know better." Elf huffed again softly, ears twitching.

"Well, we both should have known better than to run into a witch's underwater tunnel. Do you think that we're witches now?"

Elf still looked miffed. "Well, I don't feel unholy power welling in my veins, so no."

She stiffened. "The exit."

The elf ran forward, then Crim saw the lighted opening down the river. He let out a relieved sigh, then ran after his partner. The cave opened up into a world of warmth and sunshine.

A woman neither of them saw in the cave stared after them from her perch at the edge of her river. She never forgot faces, especially ones that had frequented her waters so often. But this time was different. This time, they hadn't drank.

She looked back down at the water and let her eyes close. They'd come back. These mortals always did.

All she could hear was the rumble of her waters and the fading sound of young voices.


	6. You Should Not be Going Across the Lethe

"I think I know where we are."

Across the river, there were rows and rows of trees, branches dipping with apples the size of fists, behind a familiar chain link fence topped with razor wire. Elf raised a hand and shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun, a smile flickering across thin lips.

"The Lethe Orchard."

They had to be very far from the school itself. There were gaping holes in the fence, big enough to crawl through, and there weren't any cameras on the fence poles. Students weren't allowed in the Orchard unless they were doing labor therapy (ie free farming for the school) and eating the apples was strictly forbidden, but even then, the fences were well taken care of. This was much deeper in the Orchard than either of them had ever been.

A breeze came and they shivered, their clothes still dripping wet.

"How do we get across the river?"

Elf and Crim exchanged glances.

"Well, wading's out of the question." The goblin looked down the river, frowning a little. "I think I see some stones we could step on."

"Is that safe?"

Crim walked towards the stones, frowning when he saw how small they were. "Hey, how coordinated are you?"

Elf stepped beside him, scowling in consternation at the wet stones. They were barely bigger than the width of a bare human foot, and they were about two thirds the length of a foot long-ways. Worse, the water kept swelling and going down, occasionally partially submerging the rocks.

"I won't be able to keep my balance. We need to find another way."

"Elf, if we get don't get back before sunset, you're going to get thrown in solitary restriction because they'll think that we ran off to fool around."

The tips of the elf's ears got red at the implication, but she didn't disagree.

"Girls get mutilated, tortured, and gods-know what else there." He glanced up at her, steely gold eye meeting a pair of fiery violet ones. He felt a flicker of recognition in the back of his head, the taste of apples playing on his tongue, a voice that he knew but couldn't quite understand whispering to him. "Call me sappy, but I'm not exactly comfortable with that happening you or anyone else."

_"Don't touch the water. You can't do it again. You have to remember!"_

"Well, what do you suggest, Crim?" For once, there wasn't snark or insults in her voice. She was completely serious, keeping eye contact and speaking to him as an equal, not a burden.

He took a breath, making a few decisions in his head.

"I suggest that you don't squirm."

Elf let out a yelp as he scooped her up, instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck and driving her nails into his flesh. "What, by the gods, are you _doing?_"

"If you don't want to fall in toxic water, then don't move."

She was much lighter than he had expected. He'd need to have a conversation with her about gaining some weight after this was over. (Or maybe she was in the reformatory for an eating disorder…?)

It looked like she was going to protest and squirm from his grip, but he stepped on the first rock before that, immediately making her seize up.

_"No! Stop! Don't let the water tou—"_

Little bits of the water seeped through the already-soaked cloth of his shoes, wiping away that strange new feeling of knowing so fast it was making him dizzy. His memories of the hallucinations, already so blurred that they were hard to recognize, were swept down the river, and he was left strangely empty. The world clouded, spinning. He swayed for a moment.

"_Crim!_"

The sound of his lab partner's voice, usually so dry and sarcastic, tight with fear brought him back. Her nails were now so deep in his neck that they broke flesh, getting little beads of blood to well up and dribble down.

"By the gods I swear that I will _kill you!_"

He concentrated on her light weight (seriously, he needed to slip her something substantial later) in his arms, taking another step and flicking his eye down to her furious and terrified face.

"You might want to wait on that for now."

He took another step, the overwhelming desire to fall asleep in the water gripping him, but he just kept holding his lab partner, precariously perching on stone after stone.

The nails in his neck seemed to loosen a little, but that may have just been his brain administering some anesthesia out of pity.

As soon at he stepped on shore, he let the elf down on the ground.

Crim waited for her to hit him, or shout, or kick him where it hurt, bracing himself with a wince.

She slapped him hard across the face. "Do you _enjoy_ nearly giving me a heart attack?"

He flinched, his cheek burning where she struck him, but he figured that he got off easy. "I'm sorry. That water had a bigger punch than I thought it would. Now if you would excuse me, I think I need to go pass out."

The world was spinning and blurred again. He dropped to his knees, then fell on his side, the grass tickling his stinging cheek.

"Crim!"

Elf was kneeling by him. He grappled with himself, trying to cling to that feeling he had been having every time he looked at her, that feeling of being grounded, but it wasn't there. The water had swept it away.

He let his eye close. Just a quick nap. Elf was safe. He could sleep.

"CRIM!"

* * *

His first impression was feeling frozen. By the gods, the first thing he'd do when they came back from being beaten would be changing out of his sopping clothes.

"Crim, Crim, wake up, by the gods, wake up _now…_"

Elf. He was so used to hearing her sound like one of the adults. Dry. Intellectual. Curt.

For the first time, she sounded like a real teenager. A frightened kid in a swiftly developing body trying to come to grips with the situation.

The fact that someone so aloof was actually acting her age suddenly highlighted his own youth. He was scared. He was really scared.

He forced his eye open, focusing through the pounding headache in the back of his brain.

"Oh thank the _gods!_"

Elf was upon him in moments, pulling him up in a sitting position. "You were out. I don't know how long."

He shook his head, trying to dislodge the confusion, and looked up at the sky, then his partner.

"Sunset isn't on yet, and your hair and clothes're still wet. I wasn't out long."

He looked a little closer. His partner was completely soaked, her blue robe sticking tight to her body and her white shirt practically see-through. (Funnily enough, even with that advantage, he still wasn't _quite_ sure she was a girl…) Her hair had actually turned a few shades darker with the water, stuck to her face, and she had a little dirt smudged on her cheek and on her school robe. The dark color in her hair and in the mud made her skin look that much more pale, like she was one of those ghost elves.

He smiled and let out a soft chuckle.

"Why are you laughing?"

She looked indignant, as if he were mocking her and her concern for him. He let a little affection creep into his expression and he leaned forward, gently rubbing the dirt off her face and tucking a wet lock behind her ear. "We're a sight to see."

Her brow was still furrowed.

"I'm sorry to scare you. I didn't think that the water was so dangerous that just getting through my shoes would knock me out. I promise to not do something so stupid again."

That seemed to placate her. She allowed a tiny smile to escape, grabbing the corner of her wet robe and leaning forward to dab the blood off of his neck. He tilted his head a little to allow better access, secretly examining her face. She was showing an actual gentle side. He didn't know she had one.

"Just make sure you keep that promise."

She finished cleaning up the cuts on his neck, her own little olive branch, and looked at the fence. "We need to get back to school as soon as possible. We've been unaccounted for for hours."

"With any luck, someone covered for us."

He picked out a particularly large hole in the fence, going over and squirming through. "Come on."

Elf followed, her robe getting snagged in the broken chains. She pulled herself out, wincing when the metal wire dragged into her skin and made a long, bloody scratch on her arm.

"You want me to look at that?"

"Once we're back at school."

Elf stood up, rolling her shoulders and glancing around the rows and rows of apple trees. "We will be in such trouble if they find us here."

"At a certain point, I don't think we could get in anymore trouble even if I got you pregnant."

After he said it, he expected there to be an awkward silence followed by a slap, but Elf only chuckled softly.

"Well, at least we do not have to worry about that."

He smiled, nudging her shoulder playfully. "You sure? You seem a little too smart to be a teenager."

She nudged him too, eyes sparkling a little. "As do you. Perhaps you're older than I think you are."

"Was that a _compliment_?"

"Not if you get a large head over it."

"I dunno. You give so few compliments that I think I need to inflate my head a little."

"Well, you're arrogant enough, so I suppose I won't notice the difference."

"And I suppose that your other name is 'Miss Pot' too?"

"Oh hush, you."

Elf shoved him gently, chuckling, and Crim found that he was enjoying her company. That was okay. She was nicer than he had thought.

Come to think of it, she was actually kind of cute, in a delicate, elven fashion. He generally went for the goblin girls—the lack of tusks turned him off for the most part—but she was pretty. It made no sense. She wasn't even identifiable as a girl.

But the happy sparkle in her eye when she smiled, the lovely shade of purple in her irises and hair, the light grace in her motions, the strength held in that tiny frame… and that fire. That fire he saw every time he looked at her eyes was beautiful.

That was when he realized he had a crush on his lab partner. He'd probably had it since that day in class where she resisted Demon's advances and he had seen the fire for the first time.

"Who are you?"

Elf frowned and trotted forward. Crim tore his eye away from her and looked to where she was talking.

There were two unkempt dirt paths, one going north and south and the other going east and west, probably to help make it easy to traverse the Orchard. At the crossroads, a woman was looking up at an apple tree, reaching up and picking a fruit from one of the low-hanging branches.

She was slow in looking at the teenagers, but she did eventually.

Her hair was black, pulled up in a ponytail to keep it off her neck. Her eyes were cloudy gray and unthreatening with crows feet and other age and stress-induced lines deep in the skin, and she was wearing a spaghetti-strap white shirt and light green shorts, good for how hot it could get in the sun but definitely not the Lethe worker uniform.

What was most striking, though, was the snake curled around her arm, glancing over at them with its tongue flicking out.

"It's been a while since one of you kids ran off this deep in the Orchard." She took a bite of the apple, juice running down her chin before she wiped it off. Her voice was very smooth and lulling. Mesmerizing, even, like the voice of every good mother weaved together in a lullaby. Crim had to give her props for charisma.

"You don't work here."

The woman shrugged, jostling the snake a little and causing it to slither a little further down her arm. "I'm here as a favor. Some girls in my family used to take very good care of this place, but they sadly died, so I help tend to the trees. They started it, you know. The Orchard." She looked back at the branches, smiling. "I remember back when there was only one tree in this whole place."

Elf frowned curiously, mirroring Crim's expression.

"One tree?"

"Yeah."

Elf's eyes narrowed disbelievingly, crossing thin arms. "You seem a touch… young."

"I look young for my age."

The woman looked down at her snake, wrapping it around her neck and letting it flick its tongue over the last of the apple's juices from her lips. "Do you want an apple?"

Elf opened her mouth to speak, but Crim beat her to it.

"No, thank you." Crim was tense, staring at the apples in the trees warily. "We're in enough trouble. You get automatic solitary restriction if you take an apple from the Ochard. In fact, we really need to get to school…"

"Oh, you're not that far. I know a shortcut. You have plenty of time." The woman took another bite of the apple, smiling when the snake flicked its tongue over the juice again. She looked back up at the branches, eyes glimmering. "You know, they say that these apples used to be gold, but the war of the gods turned them red with blood. Weird story, huh?" She shrugged, finishing off her apple and letting the core fall to the ground to become part of the earth again. "Apparently, this orchard was really important. Probably because of the giant mountain beside it."

She pointed up towards the end of the Orchard, all the way to the mountain overlooking Lethe Academy. Crim didn't know its name. No one had ever said.

Elf was getting uncomfortable. Crim was past that point. "Do you mind telling us which way to go to our school?"

The woman shrugged, still smiling and playfully tickling her snake's head. "Sure thing. Just go that way—" she pointed north "—and keep going until you're out of the Orchard. After that, you're right on the science building. But I don't think that I need to tell you, sir, that the boy's dorm is just a right at the next crossroads, then into the thicker woods between the Orchard and the school."

Elf's eyes got wide. Girls were never told where the boys dorm was, or vice versa.

"How do you know that?"

"Some family works there. I doubt you'd guess we're related. Anyway, the first aid kits are much better there and—what's his name? It's so ridiculous that it's obviously made up… Oh, right—Element's on duty looking after the dorm now. It looks like your friend needs to see some good bandaging."

The woman nodded towards Elf's arm. The teenagers glanced down, then recoiled in surprise. Her little scratch was bleeding badly, already staining her robe.

"By the gods…" Crim immediately looked for something clean to stifle the bleeding with, but all of their clothes were filthy. Elf swallowed, trying to conceal her nervousness, but it looked like the day had just gotten a little too wrought for her tastes.

"She'll be fine if you get to the boy's dorm. The girl's dorm is a lot harder to get to and the nurse's office is all the way across campus. The boy moderators are good about keeping secrets that don't hurt anyone at any rate, and Element's got his eye on Nature, so he wouldn't turn in some kid who was just looking for a little help. It'd turn her off of him faster than Rodney going after a field mouse." She affectionately tickled her snake's chin, and the snake seemed to smile, leaning into the touch and flicking its tongue against her cheek. "Just get moving."

"How do you know any of this?" Elf asked incredulously as Crim took her unhurt arm and started down the road.

"I told you: family works here. My cousin's one of the teachers. I don't like her too much—a little sadistic for my tastes. Phoebe Feelgood, if you know her."

"Ms. Feelgood?"

"Ta-ta!"

Crim was pulling her now, eyeing her cut with concern and walking down the path. As if by (no, not magic—magic was evil) divine intervention, the land seemed to whizz under their feet and the strange woman with the snake disappeared in the trees in no time. It occurred to him that they didn't know her name.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. I'm sure it just looks worse than it is."

Crim kept his grip tight on her arm, debating whether or not to use dirty cloth to staunch the blood. Death by infection or death by blood loss? Interesting choice.

"Are you sure?"

"A little thirsty, but nothing else."

He frowned tightly and the apple trees fell away with inhuman speed, replaced by the forest, or as the students dubbed it, 'Forget Me Thicket'. It felt like the path itself was moving to let them get to their destination faster, but that was a ridiculous thought. The Orchard was just smaller than it seemed.

"This way."

"Why does this matter to you? It's just a little blood."

"Little nothing. Call me a monster, but I don't want you dying."

They stepped off the path, ducking through the thick trees. No light escaped from the heavy blanket of leaves. Elf tentatively touched her arm, wincing when all she felt was sticky warmth. She was bleeding much more than she thought.

"We'll go in through the back. There'll be less people gawking, and my room's closer there anyway."

Elf clutched the cut, hissing in pain but trying to stop the blood. "Well, it seems that we are taking turns with being hurt. And here I thought that we were just going to get some research done."

Crim stifled a grimace, trying to stay calm. "Consider it practice for health class. I think we're going to have a First Aid unit soon."

A small, drab building materialized between the trees, a couple windows alight but most dark and drooping. Crim led her to the backdoor, pulling it open, but she tugged herself out of his grip before going inside, glancing back with hard violet eyes.

"I don't want your friends thinking of me as a notch in your bedpost."

Crim took a moment to figure out the euphemism, following the elf inside and closing the door behind them. "Teenage guys are idiots, but I don't think that they'd see someone with a beaten up girl and think 'score'. But you have my promise that I'll straighten out any misunderstandings if they do make the leap of stupidity, street cred or no."

Elf was wary, but she was obviously much more open to the idea that he was being honest than she would have been before their little 'field trip'.

Crim glanced at her arm worriedly, taking her shoulder lightly and leading her through the dark, cluttered kitchen. The dorm kitchen was only used to whip up snacks, and even then it was rare to really need it. So it was shoved in the back of the dorm, almost always dark and abandoned.

They were glad to get out of there.

Crim led her down the empty carpeted hall, nudging her into one of the open doors. It was obviously his room.

One side of the room was a little messy. Not ungodly so, but cluttered. The other side was so freakishly neat that it was hard to believe that someone lived there. There were two beds, two desks, and two drawers on opposite ends of the room, but more interestingly, there was a familiar goblin lying on the messy bed, reading through a physics textbook with a bored expression on his face.

As soon as they came in, Patch looked up sharply, eye immediately catching a good look at the soaked red sleeve on the elf's arm.

"Oh gods!"

Crim shushed him quickly, glancing towards the door to see if anyone heard. It didn't seem like they did.

"Big Brother, what—"

"Not yet. It's been a hell of a day. Go get a first aid kit, a bowl full of soapy water, and a towel."

The color had completely drained from Patch's face and he nodded dumbly, scrambling up and getting out of the room to do as his elder brother said.

Crim led Elf behind the desk, sitting on the floor. Her eyes were getting a little glazed with dizziness, her previously white sleeve red and the scarlet patch on her robe growing.

He lightly slapped her face. "Stay with me."

Elf shook her head. "Yes. You."

The goblin frowned tightly and hooked his claws into the cuff of her sleeve, slicing through it easily and tearing it up to her shoulder, grimacing at the macabre sight beneath. He pulled off his sopping robe, opening his drawer and taking out a black pair of pants after a moment's thought. Blood wouldn't show up on that and he'd be able to tell if any lint got in the cut easier if it was black.

He pressed it hard on her arm, eliciting a hiss of pain.

"By the gods by the gods by the gods…"

Patch came back in, taking a moment to look for them before seeing his brother hiding their 'guest' behind the desk, then he sat beside them, putting down a big bowl filled with sudsy water, a white towel, and a first aid kit with a cheerful red plus sign on it.

"Big Brother, she's going to be okay, right?"

"Calm down. You can help me by doing what I say and not getting in the way the rest of the time."

Crim removed the pants, dipping his hand in the water and running it on the cut. Elf seemed to slip back to reality with the sharp pain, shaking her head and helping Crim wash the cut. After the initial drips, Crim took the towel and dipped it in the water, gently squeezing it out over the wound.

The older goblin glanced up at his silently panicking brother calmly. "See if there's some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol in the first aid kit. And gauze, too, but we might need to stitch this up."

"_What?_" Patch squeaked, face legitimately white. "Stitching up our _classmate?_ Are you _insane?_"

"How are your stitching skills?"

Patch looked at Elf incredulously, but Crim stayed calm and kept washing the dirt from the cut. "I'm good at first aid, and you'd be thrown in solitary restriction if we went to the nurse and Ms. Feelgood found out. I can do it, but only if you're okay with it."

He was more than capable of handling it. There was this inner peace, a reassurance that he was very good with medicine even when he didn't remember ever doing something to get that idea. He trusted the instinct, though, and just waited to see if his lab partner gave consent.

"I trust you, Crim. Just make sure to not ruin my arm."

"Don't worry."

Patch looked between them, completely baffled.

"Little Brother, get the cotton and alcohol or she could get infected."

He jerked, as if woken from a dream, and clicked the kit open, gingerly reaching in and pulling out a small bag of cotton balls and a bottle of rubbing alcohol, staring at the other materials as if he were looking at the innards of an alien.

"By the gods, what are they prepared for? A zombie apocalypse? Everything and its mother is in here!"

Crim glanced in, taking stock of the gauze, the different needles and threads (some curved needles with thread already attached, some straight with an eye, some curved with an eye, some straight connected to thread…), the various bottles of chemicals, and several medical supplies that belonged in a hospital (especially the surgery rooms). He couldn't help but agree with his brother.

"Little Brother, do you have disposable leather lying around?"

"That certainly bodes well," Elf grumbled softly, dizzily leaning against Crim's shoulder.

Patch thought for a moment, chewing on the inside of his cheek. All at once, he brightened with an idea. "My notebooks are leather-bound. I'm barely going to use them, so I'll just use the cover of my spare."

"Good idea. Who thought your horrible note-taking skills would actually come in handy?"

"Shut up, Brother."

Patch crawled over to his bed, fishing into the mess underneath it and pulling out a new leather-bound book. He drove his claws into the spine, ripping down until the separate parts of the cover were apart, then he tore the back off.

"Here."

He handed it over to Crim who immediately gave it to Elf.

"The alcohol's going to sting very badly, but you're going to really need this when I start stitching."

Elf looked down at the leather quizzically, and while she was distracted, Crim dabbed the alcohol on a cotton ball and started running it into her open cut.

She bucked, hissing loudly and locking her jaw against the cries that wanted to come out, but she didn't jerk her arm away. Patch crawled up, still pale, and comfortingly put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. For a moment, Crim felt a flare of fierce jealousy, but he quickly reminded himself that there were more important things to worry about.

He was careful to be thorough with the disinfectant, but every time his classmate let out so much as a squeak of pain, he flinched and he felt like he had been punched.

He was probably just as glad as she was when he set aside the alcohol, then his stomach dropped at the thought of what came next.

"Elf, you're going to want to have the leather in your mouth. This is going to hurt."

Elf sighed softly, bracing for the pain, and loosely slid the leather between white teeth. Patch swallowed hard, getting whiter, and squeezed the elf's shoulders again.

"Are you sure you can do this, Big Brother?"

"It'll be fine."

He instinctively knew which needle to use.

Crim picked up one of the curved needles with the thread already attached. His muscles knew how to do it. He slid it into the pale skin without pause, putting aside his feelings when his lab partner let out a muffled cry, brought up to a scream through leather when he tightened the thread and brought the skin together. He ignored the tears of pain streaming from her eyes, keeping hold of his inner calm and plunging the needle again. She bucked and Patch wrapped his arms around the elf, keeping the tiny body restrained and covering her mouth with his hand, looking like he was getting the most traumatized in this situation.

Tighten. Tie. Plunge. Tighten. Tie.

Have to close the wound. Minimizing the scar, helping the tissue heal, making it more difficult for the wound to start bleeding again…

Elf let out a soft whimper, trembling, and that panged his heart for a moment. He was hurting her. He was dimming her fire.

He mentally shook it off and plunged again.

Patch rubbed Elf's unhurt arm gently, mesmerized by the needle's dance.

Crim closed it completely, tying and snipping the thread. Elf slumped, teeth clamped tight on the leather, chest rising and falling dramatically with heavy breathing.

Patch, for lack of anything else to do, rubbed her unhurt arm again. "You did great. I would have been howling like a baby if Big Brother pulled that on me without anesthesia."

A bolt of jealousy shot through Crim again, but he withdrew into himself. So he had a crush on a girl. Big deal. Patch was always better with girls anyway, so she'd probably like him better anyway, if she even liked either of them at all. It wasn't like he had a chance. He'd just sewn her up like a ragdoll, for the gods' sake. That was probably the biggest turn-off possible.

He cleaned off her stitches with an alcohol-dabbed cotton ball before getting the gauze and wrapping it tightly around her arm. She only winced a little in pain, but the worst was past and they both knew it.

Crim finally leaned back, letting loose a breath that he had been holding. Elf pulled the leather from her lips, her teeth firmly imprinted on it, and she wiped her mouth and eyes, still breathing heavily.

"Can someone explain to me where you guys were? And how this all happened? Me and Red had to cover for you!"

Crim glanced at their soaked clothes before standing up and opening the drawers. "We lost track of time and Dragon started checking the shrines, so we hid in the shrine to Hecate."

"_What?_"

"Shut up, we're not witches. Anyway, she was going to catch us and there was some water in there so we tried hiding under there, but it turns out that there's an underwater tunnel from Hecate's shrine straight to the Lethe."

Color was banished from Patch's face again. "Y-you went into the—"

"We got out before we fell into the Lethe. Don't worry, Little Brother. But after considerable rough and tumble, we got into the Orchard and Elf got cut on the fence we crawled under. She was bleeding, so I took her here."

Patch calmed down again after giving his brother a once over with his eye, carefully looking for a sign that he was hurt and probably making a mental note to perform a more physical exam later. "That sounds much more interesting than my afternoon. And here I thought you two were boring."

"I wish. Boring sounds quite nice right now," Elf grumbled softly, pushing her wet hair out of violet eyes.

"How are we going to explain the giant dark patch in the blue carpeting, Big Brother?" Patch asked, gesturing to the blood stains and wet spots on the floor.

"We'll figure something out. Elf, you need to change out of those wet clothes or you'll get pneumonia. And you'll attract a lot of attention with a missing sleeve and huge bloodstains on your robe."

Elf gingerly touched the bandages around her arm, wincing, but Patch was rubbing her unhurt arm again, a hint of affection in his movements brought on by two people bonded over a stressful situation, even if it was miniscule compared to the situation she had shared with his brother.

Crim kept his eye focused on the clothes he pulled out.

"I'm unsure if you could really have anything that would fit me."

"The shirt will be really loose and the pants will be too long, but you can hide that with the robe until you can change into your own stuff."

Elf shifted, arching an eyebrow. "There is also the issue that my hips are probably thinner than yours…"

That made him pause for a moment. "Well, we have belts if you need them."

Elf nodded and Crim pulled a towel out with the rest of the clothes. "You'll need to dry off a little."

"Thank you."

She stood up, slipping from the brothers and taking the clothes and towel, creeping to the other side of the room. "Please turn away."

Crim kept his back to her. Patch seemed like he was tempted to keep looking, but his big brother pulled him up and forced him to turn away.

"Eunuch," Patch murmured in his ear.

Crim just hit the back of his head.

He had to admit to himself, though, that he was really tempted to sneak a peek too.

"You may turn around."

They both turned to see Elf buttoning the top button of her shirt. It was almost comically large for her and the robe was dragging on the floor, but she wasn't really the type of person to laugh at. She pulled it off with the same dignity as she did with her regular clothes.

"I'll be sure to return these to you discreetly."

"Don't worry about it."

Crim smiled, cleaning up the first aid kit, the bowl, and the towel. "Do you want me to walk you to the girls' dorm?"

"Ms. Feelgood is on duty tonight. We can't risk that." Elf's lips turned up. It was a pretty smile. It made her eyes sparkle a little. "Thank you, though. Are you alright? You should be looked at by a nurse…"

"Don't worry. It's all out of my system." Crim allowed himself to touch her shoulder, glancing up at the open door and wondering how no one had come to investigate the noise. "Hurry to the dorm before they register your absence."

"Very well." Elf dipped her head, walking to the door briskly. The elder goblin thought that she was going to leave without another word, but she surprised him by turning at the entrance, giving him another unusually warm smile. "Why don't we meet at the library at three tomorrow? My labor therapy should be done by then, and your rap lets you out at two. And we still need to find out how to get our notebooks from Morpheus's shrine."

"We'll deal with that, don't worry." Crim smiled too. "Three works great."

"Good." She dipped her head again and was gone in a flurry of flowers, honey, and wine.


	7. High School is Never Fun

"Are you satisfied yet?"

Patch pressed his hands carefully against his brother's bare ribs, performing an amateur but sincere search for any cracks or breaks, before finally relenting his full ten-minute exam.

"Okay, you're not hurt."

Crim rolled his eye, pulling on his pajama shirt. "And do you want to cross-examine me about my and Elf's day anymore?"

"No, I think I got it." Patch sat on Crim's bed next to his brother, scowling, and his elder could tell that he was resisting the urge to give him a worried hug. They had stopped being physically affectionate around the time they hit puberty, but that didn't mean that they never wanted to share a little contact. They were all each other had in this place, after all.

Crim bridged the gap by giving his brother a little one-armed hug around his shoulders. "Don't worry about me, Little Brother. It's supposed to be the other way around."

He clapped his hand on his brother's back and waved him towards his bed. "Get moving. It's almost Lights-Out."

Patch smiled, going over to his bed obediently.

"You know, the shrew's cooler than I thought."

Crim felt another pang of jealousy, but he kept it off of his expression. His brother treated girls better than he did. It was better if he was interested in Elf—at least she'd get some of the attention she'd deserve. (Though admittedly, his brother had a tendency to be a bit lecherous.)

"Yeah. She is."

Crim shut off the lights, settling under the covers. He wondered what Elf was doing now. Probably going to bed too.

"Do you know if she's really a girl yet?"

Would he still be into her if it turned out she was a guy?

Crim wondered for a moment, bringing up the image of those violet eyes. At this point, he really should be questioning the steadfastness of his sexuality.

"I'm sure she's a girl. She lives in the girls' dorm, right?"

There was a moment of silence from his brother.

"That's good enough evidence for me." Patch laid back, staring at the ceiling. "She's actually pretty cute, in a weird way. It's probably the pointy ears and eyes."

"Well, if you want to go for her, you have to keep in mind that she's not your usual type. I bet she wouldn't even let you go for a kiss until after a few weeks."

He thought that he had kept his feelings out of his voice. But Patch, instead of going on about her, just glanced over at his brother with an odd look in his eye.

"Rest up, Big Brother. I'll wake you up for the rap tomorrow."

"Thanks."

Patch fell asleep a while after that, but despite his exhaustion, Crim stayed awake, remembering the heat of Elf's fire warming him up. It would have been nice to talk to her a little more.

Their was a jerk in his gut, craving the feel of her skin, the warmth of her lips, the… things that he hadn't felt on any girl before. He really wanted to touch her. He cringed in disgust at himself. She wasn't that kind of girl. He shouldn't be thinking about that stuff. It was… demeaning.

She had been right. He wasn't any different from any other guy.

He pushed away his teenage cravings, trying to shake it off. He wasn't shallow like that. He was interested in her for more than her body. He didn't think of her as one of those… girls like Demon. The girls that you never talked to or laughed with or hung around. The girls that you only came to for the sex.

He privately shuddered a little. As uncomfortable as he'd be admitting it to another guy, he wasn't ready for that kind of thing. Making out was all very well and good, but sex sort of scared him.

No, he definitely wasn't interested in Elf like 'any other teenage boy'.

He would be happy if he could just be around her. He didn't need the kissing and touching. The fire was hot enough for him to just be near and stay warm. So he made a promise to himself.

She and his little brother could go out if that made them happy—he would deal with it.

He drifted to a fitful sleep.

* * *

"And he carried you across the Lethe?"

"_Yes,_ Red. I've retold the story three times."

"And he stitched up your arm? He didn't screw it up or anything?"

"No." Elf subconsciously touched the wounded arm, wincing. She wouldn't have objected to some pain killers, but it wasn't a frightening pain. It was the pain of healing stitches, not ones that were shoddily done. She was surprised. Maybe Crim had had medical experience in the past.

"And you didn't give him a kiss?"

Elf's ears perked, and she glanced across the dark room to the red-haired human. "Excuse me? Why, by the gods, would I kiss him?"

Red cocked her head, smiling bemusedly. "Seriously? Not even a peck on the cheek?" She crossed her arms. "When a guy does really brave things for the sake of a girl, the girl usually gives him a kiss to thank him."

"That is the silliest thing I have ever heard."

"It's not like you're supposed to give him a free BJ, Elf." Elf wrinkled her nose in disgust at the implication, scowling. "It's just a kiss. Not even on the mouth if you don't want to. It sounds like he's into you anyway."

"I doubt that, Red. I am not girlfriend material." Elf self-consciously smoothed her hair, keeping her voice low to avoid Ms. Feelgood or Sirius catching them. "He would not appreciate a kiss."

"All guys like kisses. It makes them feel manly." Red hugged her knees, letting out a girlish grin. "And why don't you think you're girlfriend material?"

"I am uninterested in romance and am not attractive." Elf pulled her nightgown down, fiddling with the hem. "Crim is probably interested in Demon at any rate. All the boys are."

"Well, that's because she's a slut." Red lay down on her bed, fluffing her pillow. "I bet he likes you. He and his brother are actually really hot for goblins, so I think you could have done worse. And if you don't want him, I'll take him."

"He doesn't like me."

"You're a pretty girl, Elf."

"I'm not." Elf ran a self-conscious hand through violet hair. "Good night."

Red sighed. "Good night."

Elf shifted, gingerly stroking her bandaged stitches, and lay down, falling into a fitful trance.

* * *

"There you are."

Crim's muscles were clenched and the sinews in his neck were thick ropes, his claws digging hard into the wooden library floor. Elf understood. She had been the same way after her first rap.

"I take it you didn't find it fun."

"It was like a _nuthouse!_"

Elf sat next to him, giving a small smile of sympathy. He struggled to relax himself, but the tension in his body was frozen there. "Everyone was just screaming at each other and Ms. Feelgood started ripping into me for not crying or saying anything. It was like a special circle of hell! I was lucky that I came out intact!"

"Your next one is on Tuesday, correct? Four o'clock?"

He grimaced, nodding.

"Then we will be together. Perhaps having an ally during one of those 'therapy' sessions will make it easier to handle." Elf ran a pale finger across the spines of the books in front of them, pulling a couple out.

"That… that sounds good." Crim smiled, but his muscles and sinews were still taut.

"And I must apologize. It has come to my attention that I breached etiquette and didn't thank you properly for helping my arm."

He blinked in surprise, raising his head a little. "What? Oh, don't worry about it. I'm glad to hel—"

Elf leaned in, concealed shyness to the motion, and gave a feather-light kiss on his cheek. "Thank you."

Blood rushed to his face and his muscles melted, all tension flying out. She pulled back, trying to hide a blush, and opened one of the books, flicking through the pages to find something relevant to their project.

"…I should help you out more often."

Elf relaxed a little, smiling with badly concealed relief before she looked up, violet eyes twinkling a little with humor. "Don't get any ideas."

"If I carry your books to class, you think I'd get another?" he ribbed, grinning.

"I said no ideas." Elf kept smiling, giving him a gentle nudge. "Stay on track. We have a project to do."

Crim hid a shy smile, looking to all the world save for the elf next to him like a lovesick teenager. "One last thing, though. You should have your stitches checked and re-bandaged. You want to let me do that afterwards?"

"That would be appreciated, thank you."

Elf showed him one of the books, pulling a new notebook out of her bag and making a note in it. "And I passed Coal and Demon glued to each other's faces between the bookshelves. Have they…"

"…Been there since I got here? Yes. Apparently, Coal came after Doppel. It feels a little like I'm trying to work next to a brothel." Crim shrugged, looking through the books again and taking out a small pile that looked interesting.

"I thought that all the boys liked her."

Crim shook his head, rolling his eye and flicking one of the books open. "Like? I guess so. Guys just like girls who readily put out. I'm not into that kind of girl, personally. No one respects her."

"So you wouldn't go straight to her the moment Coal is gone?" Elf asked skeptically, crossing her arms.

"Gods, no." Crim frowned at her, jotting down a few notes. "Girls aren't the only ones who sometimes want things to be special and who don't feel ready for certain stuff. Making out is nice and all, but if it's with someone who you don't know, I don't see the appeal. It sounds awkward to me."

He didn't see Elf's smile.

He also didn't see it fall away before she smoothed her clothes self-consciously.

"But anyway, my brother said he'd pick up our notes from the shrine. I think the librarian also said that they had some books we could use here, too…"

* * *

"Hey, your name's Red, right?"

Red looked up from her homework, squinting through the glare of the sun at the shadow standing above her.

"Yeah. Want a seat?"

He sat beside her on the grass, and now that he wasn't in front of the light, she got a good look at him.

"Oh, hey, Patch." Red grinned, hugging her knees. "How are the lashes?"

"I can sit down again, which is nice. You?"

"Same." Red subconsciously rubbed her thighs, grimacing, before flipping her binder shut. The electric fence crackled a few feet behind them, but nonetheless, she preferred to stay near it. The closer to the fence one was, the less likely one would be harassed by teachers. "We're going to need to show up for more punishment tomorrow."

"How bad can it be, really? I'll make sure they don't hurt you too badly. I'd hate to see a pretty girl get beaten again." Patch winked and nudged her playfully, provoking a soft giggle and a smile.

"Well, with any luck it'll turn out like that. Skipping it is out of the question, I guess—whatever they do to Elf will be a lot worse than they do to me. Dragon and Ms. Feelgood really have it in for her."

"Oh really?" Patch rolled his eye in exasperation, tired of Dragon's and Ms. Feelgood's blatant favoritism, and shyly sidled up so their shoulders were brushing against each other. "Why? She seems pretty smart to me, and I never see her causing trouble in class."

"I don't know. I think they have a problem with her and your brother working together."

Patch frowned quizzically.

"Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either. I dunno, maybe they both did something to piss Dragon and Ms. Feelgood off in another life."

Patch shuffled a little, hugging his knees. "It was actually Elf and my brother I wanted to talk about. Did she tell you about where she was the other day?"

"That they were tramping across the Lethe and the Orchard before she needed to get stitched up like a ragdoll? Yeah."

Patch gave a nervous chuckle. "Yeah. That wasn't fun. But I wanted to ask something—do you think she has a thing for my brother?"

Red's eyebrows went up before she shoved him gently. "Are you kidding? It's against the girl code of honor to start blabbing about each other's crushes."

"Because Big Brother _definitely_ has a thing for her." Patch tore up the grass a little with his claws. "I want to make sure the feeling is mutual before I start trying to badger him into asking her out."

She frowned thoughtfully, lying down on her stomach. "Oh really? How do you know?"

"I'm his brother. I know when he's interested in a girl." He shrugged. "And I don't blame him. She was one hell of a trooper through the stitches."

Red thought for a moment, trying to weigh the pros and cons of telling. "Alright, then. I'll tell you what I know." She curled a strand of red hair around her finger. "Elf's a closed book. She really is. It's hard to tell, but she got really flustered when we started talking about him and her. And this afternoon when she was going to meet him, she was fussing with her appearance. I don't think I've seen her do that once here."

Patch grinned, his ears twitching gently. "Then badgering him is a go?"

"Yeah." Red looked up at him, arching an eyebrow. "You know, I thought that you came here to ask me out or make out a little."

"I was going to ask after the 'screwing with my brother's love life' thing." Patch cocked his head, propping it on his fist. "You want to meet up in the dining hall at eight? I know a nice little place in Forget Me Thicket that isn't hooked up to cameras."

"Sounds good."

Red hid her blush, grinning, and nudged him playfully. "Maybe we can hang around here for a bit while we wait."

Patch smiled, nudging her back. "I'd like that."

* * *

A/N: Yay, more posts! Anyway, before people start talking about how there were out-of-character moments here, it should be pointed out that the characters are teenagers here, and thus have all the painful teenager-y awkwardness that makes highschool miserable for everyone. Everyone's insecure, everyone (except for those lucky few, obviously) is shy about dating and sexuality, and everyone is trying to find themselves in the mire of puberty, adolescence, and other kids taking their insecurities out on everyone else. So yeah. Enjoy this jaunt in memory lane.


	8. That is Why You Should Stay in Bed

"Ask her out."

Crim jumped in surprise, turning his head to see his little brother coming into their room, faint lip-gloss marks smeared on his lips and neck, complete with a hickey at the nape.

The elder frowned, resigned to the inevitable retelling of his brother's newest fling. "Wash your face."

"Seriously, ask her out." Patch pulled a bottle of water from under his bed, pouring a little of it on his shirt and wiping his face and neck clean, though getting little light pink smudges all over the hem.

"Who? And who were you out with?"

"That cute human, Red. She's a nice girl. And one hell of a kisser. We're going to go out again this week." Patch was grinning like an idiot, but he shook his head to clear it before he sat on the edge of the bed. "But anyway, ask Elf out."

"Wait, what?" Blood rushed to Crim's face immediately and he futilely tried to hide it, determined to keep his feelings to himself. "W-what are you talking about? She's just my lab partner."

"You're painfully obvious, Big Brother. You're like a desperate puppy." Patch grinned at him before taking a hearty drink of water. Crim's face was burning. "We both know you want to date her. So go ask."

"I-I'm not interested in her! I thought you were!"

Patch waved him off. "She's cute. If you weren't sweet on her, I would've asked her out to see where things went. But it's not like I'm falling all over myself for her—you are."

Crim was blushing so hard it was a wonder he didn't catch fire. "I…"

"Go ask her out. What's the worst that could happen? She says 'no'? I mean, I doubt she would after that little trip you guys had." Patch rolled his eye, smiling fondly as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "And I think she'd be interested."

"She wouldn't," Crim said shortly, physically withdrawing from his brother. "No. She wouldn't."

"Oh come on." Patch frowned, squirming back in bed so his shoulders were leaned against the wall. "Why not?"

"She's… better than that. She's not that kind of girl."

Patch's eyebrows arched. "Not that kind of girl? Big Brother, I'm not telling you to try to make her sleep with you. I'm telling you to ask her out."

Crim shrugged evasively, looking back down at his homework and scribbling nothing on the paper. "She wouldn't be interested. She'd think I'm trying to get into her pants."

"She knows you a little better than that at this point." Patch frowned, propping his head on his fist. "You're just scared."

"Little Brother, I don't want to talk about this anymore. She's a friend. I don't need her to be anything more."

Patch glared, the one gold eye pronouncing the lack of another. "Come on. Be a man."

"I am. I can admit it if a girl doesn't like me like that. Now do your homework."

His little brother sighed, resigning himself to the fact that setting his brother up would require more effort, and pulled his homework out.

* * *

There were vibrations in her blood when she woke up.

Shadows from the branches and leaves outside swayed on the wall, moving on her roommate's sleeping face and the blue carpeting on the floor.

Pale feet slipped to the floor, only the rustling of covers signaling the quiet retreat. A blue nightdress flowed in the breeze, letting the silhouettes of leaves dance across its soft cloth before it disappeared out the door.

It felt like a string was pulling her.

The dark hallways provided the refugee protection as she walked through. She passed the common room, footsteps wanting to falter but unable to.

Ms. Feelgood was inside, sitting on the couch. Watching to make sure no kids were leaving. But she was staring at the window, her back to the stray girl. She was talking. It didn't sound like she was using Common.

The electricity in her ears rippled and the string pulled harder, forcing the barely awake girl forward again.

She realized she had no shoes when she stepped out on the untamed forest floor.

The string kept pulling her. No time for shoes, it seemed to say.

Elf blinked fully awake, wondering why she was out there, but the string tugged hard, forcing her onward. Her feet were supernaturally silent on the ground. Twigs snapped under her steps and dry leaves poked painfully into the sole of her foot, but they didn't make sounds.

The trees shook to their roots, and (though Elf knew this had to be a trick of her eyes) they moved to allow her in a clearing.

She walked inside, the string finally releasing her and the trees moving again to close the gap between them.

"Nice to see you again."

Elf stiffened, glancing around wildly. There was a pond there, the water unnaturally clear and glowing with very pale blue light, casting all the occupants in relief. The person who spoke was a small prepubescent girl kneeling at the muddy edge of the water, and despite the fact she was dressed in an all-white nightdress, none of the dirt stained it.

She looked up, and Elf felt like her heart was stopping.

There was something very, very strange about the girl. Like the space around them moved when she did. It took Elf a moment to put her thumb on it.

Magic. It was… _magic_ in that place.

The little girl straightened up, brushing off invisible dirt from her white dress, iridescent white hair falling down to her elbows, and she looked up with a small smile. The only things about her that weren't white were her calm gray eyes and the innocuous brass key around her neck.

"How's the arm?"

Her voice was the last thing Elf needed to confirm she was a witch. It sounded so sweet. It was the voice of a thousand innocent young girls, all woven together, the heart of childhood. It made her heart ache to hear it.

There was shifting. Elf's eyes adjusted to the darkness and she jumped in shock.

"Nature?"

"Hey."

Her teacher was smiling casually, green eyes cheerful despite the proximity of an obvious witch, and she walked up to the frightened teenager, squeezing her shoulder. "Glad to see you could drop by."

"Sh-she…" Then Elf realized. She jerked away from Nature, eyes getting huge and dormant power starting to shift in her veins. "You're a witch! Both of you!"

"Don't be scared. There's nothing wrong with magic. You're being lied to."

Elf swung around again to see another woman she had never met before.

She looked like she was the same ethnicity as Sharp and all the moderators, which Elf had never actually learned the name of, and she was clearly an adult human. She had dark eyes and black hair pulled in a ponytail to keep it out of her face, and her robe was black with a white ribbon tying it together at her waist. A witch.

"Witches!" Elf jerked back, her heart pounding in her ears, but she narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Don't you d—"

"We didn't bring you here to curse you." The girl gave a small smile, producing a big red apple from behind her back. "We just wanted to offer you a chance to help your loved ones."

"I've heard the things witches do!" Elf backed away, glancing at Nature, glaring, clear betrayal in her face. "No wonder you were so kind to us."

"No, Vaarsuvius, listen. We've all run away long enough."

"I told you we should leave them out of it," the mystery woman said, crossing her arms with a consternated frown ."They have a right to forget."

"No, they don't," Nature replied sharply. "We've all gone through a lot, but that doesn't excuse us from our responsibilities—"

"They've done a lot and paid heavier price for it. They have every right to turn their back on it all." It was clear this was an old argument. The mystery woman was resisting the obvious urge to glare. That was confusing, but not unexpected. Elf had heard that witches had power struggles between each other even when they were part of the same coven. "Why do you think we're doing this yet again? You should just let them _be._"

Elf glanced back at the trees, calculating how fast she could run. Witches could turn her to stone if she wasn't careful, but—

"Don't get any ideas."

The mystery woman was suddenly in front of her, holding out her arms to block the elf's escape, and the dark eyes bore into her, something haunted there, something that knew what Elf instinctively knew she never wanted to learn. "We won't hurt you if you just answer our question. Once you do that, we'll let you out, no harm done, and won't come for you again." The woman looked up at Nature, those dark haunted things sharp suddenly. "_Will_ we?"

Nature hesitated, frowning, before she let out a sigh. "No. We won't."

The woman jerked her head a little, indicating for Elf to turn around. The teenager did her best to hide her fear before she reluctantly turned back towards the still smiling little girl, shooting another betrayed glare towards Nature.

"We _trusted_ you."

"You'll thank me later." She paused. "On second thought, you won't. You never have, and I doubt you'll do it this time. But you'll understand why I did it."

The little girl shrugged, still smiling, but there was something very, very dark to it. Something vicious. It wasn't human, elven, goblin, dwarven, or halfling. It was like nothing Elf had seen before.

"One day you'll understand that I won't let you be, Vaarsuvius. I'll make you remember. You promised yourself to me, so I'll never let you go, no matter how many times you make yourself forget."

She held out her white hands, the scarlet apple nestled in her cupped palms.

"Take a bite."

The string was pulling her again, stronger this time.

"Go on."

"Please, don't force her into—"

The little girl tilted her head up, fixing the mystery woman behind Elf with a stare that wasn't a glare, but wasn't smiling either.

The woman made a small choking sound and fell silent.

Nature didn't say anything, but she looked uneasy.

The little girl looked back at Elf, smiling once more, and the string gave her a hard tug.

Elf jerked forward, her hands gasping the apple against her will.

"Eat it slowly."

Elf struggled against the string viciously, her hands trembling with the force, but they brought it to her face anyway.

"There's a good girl."

She squirmed, trying to pull the apple away, but she opened her mouth slightly and punctured the skin with her bottom teeth, allowing juice to flow into her mouth.

_"I wish I never tried to remember, V." _

_"Surely you don't mean that. Memories may be painful, Red, but we both know how important they are." _

_She sat down in front of the sitting goblin, taking his hand tightly. He was hunched over himself, shadows and his hand hiding his face, his crimson cloak wrapped tight around his body. The stone was cold against their skin and the old hallways was drafty, the tang of blood from outside permeating through the air, but that didn't concern the elf._

_"Come now. You're being dramatic. Look at me and say what is troubling you."_

_He didn't look at her. His hand covered his face, and his shoulders shook with silent crying. The elf squeezed his free hand, beginning to get concerned. She didn't remember seeing him cry before._

_"Red?"_

_"I did something horrible."_

_Alarm bells started ringing and the elf gave a nervous frown. "Red, this is worrying me. Please look me in the eye and tell me what you remember." _

_"I did something horrible. It was mercy that made her wipe the memories away."_

_"Red, surely nothing is so awful that _all_ the memories were worth destruction." The elf grasped his shoulder, making the grip tight. "_Look_ at me." _

_She paused. _

_The scarlet cloak was wet. _

_She felt the blood draining from her face. "Red, let me see your eyes."_

_He didn't say anything._

_She drew her hand away from his cloak to see that crimson was staining her palm. _

_"Red?"_

_She stood up, looking down to see a pool of ruby-colored liquid forming on the floor around the goblin._

_"Red?"_

_The elf grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOURSELF?"_

She let out a shriek of pain, and jerked the apple away, throwing it into the glowing pond. The water gurgled, bubbles of steam rising from the depths, and then stilled.

Blinding emotional _agony_ flared in her chest, stopping her air flow before she collapsed to the ground, holding her head and screaming loudly enough to make the sleeping birds around them squawk and fly up into the night.

After the scream ended, she just deflated and did what she never thought she'd do.

She broke down and cried inconsolably, covering her head with her hands as if that would make the pain in her heart go away. She didn't know how or why, but something horrible had happened. Something that had destroyed her world.

And all she could think about was how she never wanted to feel this pain again.

"By the gods!"

The mystery woman was kneeling by her side, hugging her close and stroking her hair. It did nothing to ease her heartbroken sobbing. She couldn't even summon up the strength to protect her remaining pride by hiding her distress. Nature looked horrified, having taken a step back and slapped her hands to her mouth, eyes giant disks.

"I told you! I told you to let her be! _Look at what you're doing to her! _FOR THE GODS' SAKE, LIRIAN!"

"I… I…" Nature shook her head, her hands wavering. "I… I didn't think she'd start with a bad memory this time!"

"Do you think it'll matter to her when she gets the bad ones back? _Do you?_" the woman hissed furiously, clutching the sobbing teenager with all the protectiveness of a mother. "You didn't see the things they went through. _I did._ You're heartless for making them relive it."

"I… I didn't mean…"

The little girl was the only one unfazed. Her gaze stayed calmly on Elf, her hand going up and gently fingering the key against her chest.

"You're not ready yet."

She felt like her insides were getting sucked out through her mouth, then there was a flash of light.

Elf jerked awake, heart pounding in her ears, and shadows of branches and leaves were dancing on her bed.

She paused, the memory of her dream fresh in her mind, and sat up, scrubbing her wet face. She must have been crying in her sleep. With any luck, Red hadn't heard it.

She pulled a water bottle from under her bed and took a good, long drink.

By the time she started to trance again, the dream was forgotten.

* * *

A/N: I apologize if this is ridden with mistakes and/or bad writing, since after spending four straight days editing the latest RAD update, I could only force myself to edit this for about a day, and even then it wasn't thorough. But yeah. The plot is moving! Yay! If you pay close attention, you might see hints, references, and foreshadowing and such.

And again, before I get angry reviews talking about how this and that was an OOC moment, remember that they're all teenagers with the average teenage mindset (plus the average teenage capacity for dealing with heavy emotions).


	9. Stop Eating the Apples, Kids

The next morning, Patch, Drow, Red, Coal, and Dwarf dutifully went to the main office to have their punishment for Halfling's attempt to jump the fence.

None of them came back for classes.

At first, most of their friends assumed that the punishments had gone overtime.

By lunch, Elf and Blondie sat alone picking at their food worriedly, though Blondie never noticed that Elf's silence seemed much more troubled than his. Crim had felt ill so he didn't even attend.

When classes ended, Crim started badgering various teachers for details, only stopping when Serpent pointed out that, with every disruption he made, he made things worse for his brother. Blondie forlornly paced the halls, unbothered by the strange looks he received from others, and Elf stayed at the room, lying on her bed with her eyes closed, and waited patiently for some news.

Everyone was so concerned for the missing students, no one had noticed how sick the elf had looked.

It wasn't until the morning after that they came back.

* * *

"Gods!"

Crim shoved the sheets off to avoid falling over them, scrambling up to help the curled form that had literally crawled into the room. "Little Brother!"

Blood spilled from little nicks and cuts on his whole body, and it soaked the seat of his pants. Crim didn't hesitate to close the door and carefully lift his brother, eliciting a hiss of pain, and lying him on his stomach on a bed.

"Big Brother, I'm fine, I just can't stand… or sit…"

"By the gods…"

Crim pulled Patch's shirt off, wet with blood and sweat, careful incase he had any broken ribs. The cuts were all clean, a few were deep, but it didn't look like any were life-threatening. Crim immediately went to the drawer and took out the first aid kit he had taken to keeping.

"What did they do to you?"

"Well, they beat us all first, which was bad enough," Patch grumbled, shuddering and hissing when his own sweat slipped into his cuts. "Then they blindfolded us. I don't know where anyone went since we were separated, but when I could see again, I was stuck in this tiny little room with knives sticking up from the floor and bits of twisted metal and broken glass in the walls, so I couldn't sit or lean at all. They kept me in there until now."

"How do these people stay in business…?"

Crim washed off his brother's back, eliciting a wince, and dabbed all the cuts with antiseptic before awkwardly making him roll over so he could do the same for his chest. "But you're okay? They didn't cut anything off?"

"No, no, I'm fine. I just can't stand up because my legs hurt too much and I can't sit down for obvious reasons."

Crim grimaced after applying the antiseptic. "So, your choice: no bandaging or pneumonia."

"I'll go with the possibility of pneumonia, thanks."

Crim took out a roll of bandages and wrapped them around his brother's chest, frowning worriedly the whole time. "Wake up isn't for another hour. You can't go to class like this: I'll cover for you."

"You can't. They'll—"

"It's my job to protect you."

His big brother's sharp tone immediately made Patch quiet down.

"Stay here. Stay hidden. I'll deal with any problems that come up."

Crim pulled his brother's pants down, eliciting a blush, and started meticulously tending to the lashes.

"Then… can you ask Elf if Red came back safe? I don't know what happened to anyone else, and they're always a lot worse on girls…"

"Sure thing."

Crim kept up his ministrations, carefully applying antiseptic and bandaging the wounds.

"You know, you'd think you'd've signed up for medical school, with all the cuts and scrapes you're fixing up," Patch joked, stifling another wince as the antiseptic rolled into his open slices.

"If you didn't make trouble, I wouldn't have to," Crim said sharply.

"And if you didn't take your crush on cross-country trips, you wouldn't have to sew up arms."

Crim glared, finishing his bandaging job. "You're done, but you need to rest. Find somewhere to hide and make sure no one sees you. I'll cover."

"Please be careful."

Crim patted his brother's back, helping him into his clothes. "I will."

* * *

"Elf."

Elf wasn't paying attention. She kept staring at the string beans she had been served, picking at them with a plastic fork until they looked like mangled dissection projects gone horribly wrong.

"Elf?"

Blondie glanced at her, tossing an uneaten apple between his hands and cocking his head curiously before poking her just under the ribs.

Elf jumped in surprise, recoiling from the boy and giving a small glare.

"Crim's trying to get your attention."

Elf's eyebrows went up for a moment before she looked across the table at the goblin she hadn't noticed was there.

For a minute, there was blood all over his face and his only eye was missing.

"I wanted to ask if…" Crim's expression screwed up in worry and he leaned forward, tilting his head to the side. "Hey, are you okay?"

She didn't _look_ okay. Her bloodshot eyes were huge and all the color had left her complexion. Blondie looked at Crim and shrugged.

"She's been like this all day. Probably because she didn't have enough apples to keep the demon doctors away!" He held out his unbitten apple, grinning. "Have one, Elf! It'll keep the doctors away!"

Elf absently took the apple, rolling it in her hand, and looked back down at the table. Crim's face looked normal now. He still had his eye. "I'm quite alright. I did not have a lot of rest last night."

Crim frowned, eyeing the apple with a deep-set suspicion he didn't really know he had, and looked back at her. "So Red came back this morning? My brother's concerned."

"Yes. She's alive, but worse for wear. No permanent or disfiguring mutilations, luckily enough. Turquoise filed a request for her to miss school for medical reasons, and luckily enough, Nature approved it without Ms. Feelgood seeing it. She's resting in our room."

Crim nodded, but he still wasn't placated. Elf's hands were trembling.

_She hasn't been trancing._

He didn't know where the thought came from or how he knew, but he just did. Jumpiness, bloodshot eyes, and shaking hands were the first symptoms in her. It didn't just come from waking up early in the morning—it came from not resting at all that night. The paleness… something was the matter.

"Drow, Coal, Dwarf, and Halfling came back too, I think. At least that's where I think all the swearing this morning came from."

But neither Elf nor Crim were listening to Blondie. Crim flailed for a moment, completely unsure about how to go about asking a pretty girl about her health, and Elf absently took a big bite of Blondie's apple.

_The sound of rushing water. She had been lying awake for the past hour, just listening to the faucet in the other room. How he managed to get to that room every night without help was a mystery to her, but she supposed that by now, he knew how to navigate the halls. Maybe step-counting, or feeling the walls._

_She rolled on her side, looking at the clock on the wall across from her. Yes. It had been an hour since he had started._

_An hour. It felt wrong to leave him in there for a whole hour._

_She sat up in bed, touching the cold spot next to her where there should have been a sleeping goblin, and slipped out from under the covers. These nights were so lonely without him. It wouldn't have been so difficult if she had thought he just needed some time to himself, but it was more than that. He was pushing her away and wouldn't tell her why._

_"Red?"_

_She stepped inside the bathroom threshold, frowning, and he didn't look up. It would have been pointless for him to look, anyway. It wasn't as if he could see her._

_The water was so hot, steam rose from it. The skin of his hands had wrinkled from the prolonged cleaning and the flesh from the tips of his fingers to his elbows had been scrubbed so hard that sores were starting to open, but he kept on washing viciously, uncaring of the pain he must have been feeling._

_"I suppose you're trying to win a grudge match against your palms?"_

_She tried to give a tentative smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. It was silly that she was trying to look happy, especially since he no longer had the ability to appreciate her efforts. Every glance at the solid black ribbon he wore over where his eyes should have been reminded her of that._

_"It's late. You shouldn't be awake."_

_His speech was clipped, like he was talking to a misbehaving child or subordinate instead of the woman who, only a few weeks ago, he had said he loved._

_"How would you know, my love? You can't see the time, and you awaken at random intervals, so you can't judge it by when you're awake."_

_"When it's daytime, my brother comes in and starts fussing. When it's evening or morning, you do. When it's night, you wait for a while and then start. It's night."_

_His tone stung. It sounded like he was talking about an obstructive nuisance, not his loved ones._

_She frowned, coming a little closer. "It would be easier for us to help if you would say what you remembered that made you so upset."_

_"No, it wouldn't," he said sharply, turning up the heat of the water. His skin was swollen and starting to get burnt from it, but she knew better than to try using physical means to stop him._

_"We only want what's best for you. That and nothing more."_

_He scowled, still scrubbing as if the skin itself was what needed to come off, but his hands were shaking, tremors that spread through his entire body. He obviously hadn't slept well in a while, but she didn't need to see the shaking to know that. The screams and sobs she heard from his room were enough._

_She took a deep breath, then came forward. "My love, why don't you spend the night with me? Nothing needs to happen, and I can hear how awfully your night terrors affect you through the walls. Sometimes just sleeping in the same bed so there is someone to hold you after these episodes helps more than anything."_

_She rested a hand on his arm, squeezing it gently, and he froze._

_"I only want—"_

_"DON'T TOUCH ME!"_

_He jerked away and slammed the back of his hand across her cheek, leaving a long bloody scratch where a claw had dug in._

_She recoiled with a surprised cry and clutched her face._

_His jaw dropped open in shock, one hand reaching out so he could feel and grasp the edge of the sink to keep from falling. "Oh God! Oh God, Vaarsuvius, I…"He clutched the edge of the sink with his other hand, gripping so tightly that his knuckles were white, and his face was turned to her general direction. "Did I cut you?"_

_She winced before running a careful finger along the shallow slice on her cheekbone. "…No. No, you didn't. I was just surprised."_

_"Don't lie. I can smell the blood." His shoulders hunched and he turned his head away, letting it hang a little in shame. Drops of water from his arms ran down the slippery sink into the pool that was already there from the washing. The tiny droplets of her blood on the tip of his claw fell into the water, making it pink and cloudy. "I'm sorry."_

_"It's… it's fine."_

_"I'll let you file down the points again. You both were right. It's not safe for anyone for me to have sharp things around."_

_"Red, really, I—"_

_"Don't."_

_His tone was sharp again. Sharper than any goblin's claw._

_"Don't. Stop trying to help me." His shoulders tensed up and his lips curled a little to show his tusks. "You're making it all worse. Trying to be kind and selfless and understanding? We both know that you're not any of that, Vaarsuvius!"_

_It felt like someone had just punched her._

_"I tried to kill myself for a _reason!_" He pounded his fist against the edge of the sink so hard the water rippled. " You think you helped me when you found Durkon? You think you're helping me now by hanging around and getting my brother to help take care of me? You're not! Why won't you do the right thing for once and just _let me die?_"_

_She couldn't speak._

_"Go back to bed."_

_The words were growled, vicious, and he turned his head further so she couldn't see his face before pawing around for the soap where it had fallen in the water._

_"I…"_

_Her voice caught, and under any other circumstances, she would have been embarrassed because of it._

_"I love you, Red."_

_The clumsy, hurried shuffle of feet was all there was to tell him she was gone._

_His fingers finally curled around the soap again, but that wasn't his main concern for once. He let his head face downwards again, showing what he hadn't wanted her to see._

_Through the black cloth that hid his gouged sockets from view, hot drops of saltwater were rolling._

_"Vaarsuvius… please come back."_

_She was too far away to hear him._

"Excuse me for a moment."

Elf shot up and walked as fast as possible to the dining hall door, nearly breaking into a run, and streaked to the nearest unused-looking door.

It was a tiny janitor's closet. She didn't care. She slammed the door shut behind her, not even bothering with turning on the light, and slumped to the ground, ripping off her robe and bunching it up to put to her face.

She screamed. She screamed until her throat was raw and she could taste blood. The mysterious weight that had been on her chest since yesterday was smacked into activity again and whatever she had just experienced was added on. Heartbreak was combined with preexisting grief, tearing her insides until she felt like she honestly couldn't take it anymore.

Her voice was gone. Screamed out. And she still shrieked into the robe, muffling it even when no sound was left.

Death. Death. Someone she loved had died, but worse. She had _lost_ them! She should have been able to stop it but she _lost_ them! All of them! All of them…

She had watched it happen and she had done _nothing._

"Elf?"

There was a crease of light, but she couldn't see it. Some part of her brain, a part that wasn't overwhelmed with grief, recognized the voice and tried to remind her that she really didn't want to make a fool of herself just then, but she was beyond caring.

"Elf! What happened?"

He scooched in, closing the door despite the tight fit, and sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her hitching shoulders.

At the touch, there was another vision.

_"I don't know what to do anymore. I don't."_

_"I don't think either of us do, V. I don't think anyone else would in our shoes."_

_The brother of her old lover sat beside her on the couch. "Don't beat yourself up over it. I don't know what it was, but whatever he remembered traumatized him. He's just… he's just lashing out at the people he cares about."_

No. No no no no no no no no. No! NO! She couldn't have another one! Not another addition to the pain!

_"Is this what I've spent my life studying for? Standing idly by while the man I love spirals into complete self-destruction? If my magic can do nothing when it matters most, then I have _wasted_ my life!"_

NO! No more pain! Please, please, gods no!

She wouldn't. She wouldn't let it happen. She wouldn't let the vision hurt her anymore. SHE WOULDN'T!

_"Wasted—"_

The images got washed out and the sound muffled, but with a mighty pull from someone much stronger than the teenager, she was brought back in.

_ENOUGH OF THIS CHILDISHNESS!_

The vision had skipped ahead, but it reasserted itself with such force it sent her reeling.

_"V, you made Big Brother happy ever since you two started going out. I've known him for a long time, and I've never seen him smile the way he did around you."_

_"_Did._ Not does. He can't stand my presence anymore."_

_She cut herself short before she started crying in front of the goblin. _Really,_ she chided herself. _You're a grown elf. You don't cry.

_Well, she didn't used to cry._

_He wasn't perturbed by her emotional state. He walked forward, slowly slipping his arms around her waist and hugging her against his body. She stiffened a little in surprise, but quickly relaxed. There was something euphoric about his touch._

_She suddenly realized that no one had even casually touched her in six weeks, save for the slap she had received from her old lover._

_"It's not you, V. It's the world. It's the memories. It's not your fault he's like this." One of his hands cupped her face, gently making her look at him in the eye. "Do you realize that?"_

_She was quiet._

_"If our love was so strong, why hasn't he told me what's wrong?"_

_His thumb ran against the healing scratch on her cheek._

_"I don't know, V."_

The grief was chewing her heart. Her throat was knotting. Her chest tightened until she wasn't sure she'd be able to breathe ever again. And she was still trying to scream in the robe.

No. No more. No more!

_Don't act like a child._

She _was_ a child! She was! This was too much; she'd be murdered!

She tried to pull herself out, pain exploding at her temple, but it did nothing to stop the vision. It only jittered it, like it was on a broken roll of film, and it was speeding up, showing her things that she shouldn't have any idea about. Taking her clothes off for a man. Touching him. Looking down at his head between her legs. Feeling his hands on her ears. Letting him put his…

A blush flared through her face, shocked by the graphic nature of this flickering image, before it bared down on her again.

_"It's okay to cry, V. Dark One knows I have plenty of times these past few weeks."_

_The admission surprised her, but only a little. He was much more open than she or her old lover._

_She was sitting up, afterglow helping the ache in her heart but not obliterating it. She did feel the urge to cry. She wanted to very much._

_And guilt weighed on her. She liked the goblin beside her, she truly did, but she really wanted his brother, and they both knew it._

_"Here."_

_He sat up, leaning on her back and wrapping his arms around her waist, resting his face against her neck. "I know it's not much, but I'm here for you. You don't need to sleep alone."_

_"It means more than you know."_

_She took a deep breath to keep the water welling in her eyes from overflowing._

_"Do you want to talk about it?"_

_She tried to swallow. She couldn't._

_"It's… your concern for me. For how much I'm enjoying it, even if it's sacrificing a little of your own pleasure. Your brother always did that for me." She let out a small laugh, struggling to keep the tears back. "I apologize. It's rude to talk about other men while you're in bed."_

_"It's fine. I don't mind." He kissed her shoulder, giving a soft laugh. "I think it's a huge improvement from your 'suffer in silence' strategy."_

_A tentative smile crossed her face, then was gone. "I want to help him."_

_"We both do." He looked down, taking her hand and fingering her palm. "It's… probably best if we don't talk to Big Brother about this."_

_"Most likely." She leaned against him, nuzzling his ear. No, she didn't think they were necessarily in the wrong. She wasn't with his brother anymore. It was obvious that her old lover didn't want her anymore. But she couldn't quell the lingering guilt, and she decided that it _would_ be best if they didn't say anything around her old lover about their relationship, at least not until he was better._

_Her heart ached a little. Usually at this point, her old lover would kiss her and say something to make her smile or laugh, and he'd tell her how much he loved her. At the time, she had always thought he was a romantic fool that made her heart flutter anyway, but now, she'd give anything just to have that again._

_The faint smile on her lips faded. She may never have it again, but she would find a way to help him. She had made the decision a few days ago, and now she had to tell her partner. He had a right to know, and she needed support._

_"I'm going to eat the apples. I know that I knew what did this to him. I'm going to remember it."_

_She felt him tense up against her immediately. "What?"_

_He leaned back and grasped her shoulders, practically picking her up to turn her around and nestle her in his lap. "Whoa. Let's think about this, V…"_

_"I already have."_

_He blinked, then started shaking his head, cupping her face in his hands and pulling her body against his, uncaring about their nudity. "No, you haven't. We don't _know_ what made him like this, V. What if it happened to you too? What if you witnessed something awful? There is a _reason_ the memories are gone!"_

_"There is no reason worth wiping memories of…" She trailed off, looking away._

_He was stroking the scratch on her face again, nuzzling her neck. His goatee tickled reassuringly, reminding her that he was there. "I know it's painful to think about, V. Trust me, I understand. I try not to think about it, myself. But there's nothing left from that time. There's nothing you could remember that could undo whatever happened. Don't throw away what you have now just to know what was lost."_

_"And what do I have now, Adeak? Two grown children who don't know me, an ex-spouse who fears me, a war that threatens our lives each day?"_

_He paused._

_"An adventuring party that is swallowed by individual demons, allies that I can't trust, a world destroyed by the petty, jealous quarrels of selfish gods, and an entire life from before that I no longer remember! I have nothing to lose!"_

_"You've forgotten a few things."_

_He hugged her waist with one arm and caressed her cheek with his free hand, his only eye staring into hers like they would be the last thing he'd ever see._

_"You have your sons who you love, even if you have trouble showing it. You have hope that things will get better. And you have the spirit that's helped you survive all these things that makes the rest of us fade away and die." He broke the eye contact, looking down and resting his forehead against her bare shoulder. "And I have you. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have your help."_

_"You would do what you always have: take care of your family." She sighed softly, one hand curling into a fist against his back and gently intertwined her fingers in the hair on his chest. "I made a mistake that I don't remember. That mistake may have been what caused Redcloak's affliction. I'm not going to allow myself the luxury of forgetting."_

_"V, **please…**"_

_"I'm sorry." She kissed him softly, letting their noses touch. "I may turn out like him, but I may be able to help him in the process. That is all I need to know."_

_"V…"_

_He buried his face in her neck so she couldn't see it. "Please be careful."_

_She stroked his ears and kissed the top of his head, closing her eyes. "I will."_

Elf felt like she was going to be thrown into convulsions and never get pulled out.

_Vaarsuvius! You're torturing yourself!_

_It's my fault I'm in this position. Weakness cannot be tolerated._

"Elf!"

Crim pulled her back, pinching her nose. After a moment of desperate attempts to continue hyperventilating, she took a deep breath through her mouth, and the vision faded.

"By the gods, you scared me."

He was… he looked just like the goblin from the vision. Red?

"Here. Sometimes water helps."

He didn't let her go, but he reached up and grabbed a bottle from one of the shelves, taking off the cap and bringing it to her lips. He was smiling gently, not in a nervous or lecherous or disingenuous way.

"It'll be okay."

_"Do you think we ever got married, Red?"_

_The sulfur was thick in the air, stinging her eyes until they watered. He was leaning over her, out of any healing spells but out of some instinct protecting her with his body. Sunburn scorched her face and the pressure and sticky crimson at her stomach was uncomfortable, but bearable until the next morning, when he could pray again. Many injured comrades, both friendly and not very, lay on the stone ground, either sleeping uneasily or murmuring deliriously. There had been many casualties, and he probably should have been doting on more seriously hurt people, but no one had objected when he hovered around his partner after his spells were exhausted._

_"I don't see…" he had to pause to gasp softly, unable to take a deep breath and unable to try without screwing up in pain, "when we would have had the time, but… then again, I guess I…" he paused again, but instead of taking a breath, he started a fit of dry coughs, tensing up in horrible pain and having to stop for a moment after he was through, "wouldn't really remember… if we did. I don't see… tan lines on our fingers."_

_"So goblins use rings as well?"_

_He was worse off than she, in truth. Her wound was only inconveniently placed so she couldn't walk or sit up without making it more serious. He had taken a knife to the chest, right around the lung area. The blood that soaked his shirt was worrying, but she knew that he had given himself minimal healing to tide him over until morning. At least he wasn't bleeding anymore and his lips weren't bluish._

_Still… the occasional trickle of blood that came up when he coughed was disconcerting._

_"Depends on the village." He wiped a small smear of blood from the corner of his lips, trying to keep his short, quick breaths as steady as possible. "In mine, a ring is used." A breath. "But only to show others that we're taken." Another. "Not as part of the ceremony."_

_She frowned in worry, trying to stave off her own coughing fit brought on by the dirty sulfuric air. Her wound may not have been as serious, but she had been warned that too many muscle contractions could burst a few important things. "Would you like to be married?"_

_"If we survive?" He tried to smile, but he had to stifle a cough, pain registering on his face immediately. "I… don't think…" He took another breath. "We might want to forget again. How many times have we?"_

_"I'm unsure. It's difficult to remember what you have forgotten." She touched his hand, sticky with dirt and blood, a lot of it not his own. "But I would be happy to marry as many times as we need to. Do you want to marry me?"_

_He paused, then wiped the blood from his mouth again, the corners of his lips turning upwards. "Yes."_

_"Then let's."_

He tipped the bottle, letting the water flow slowly into her mouth. She swallowed and the visions faded along with the painful emotions, leaving only a dull ache.

"It was the apple, wasn't it? I swear, something weird is going into those things."

The memory of the hallucinations slipped away. Soon, all she had was the vague sense that she wasn't as virginal as she had thought and she had lost someone very dear to her heart.

"But I have to say, you have it a lot worse than I did."

Elf slowly dropped the robe, wiping her face and trying to hide it from the boy next to her, cheeks burning in shame. His arm was draped across her shoulders, making the tips of her ears go red. The idea of him touching her made her stomach flutter a little, but she couldn't help but wish it were under different circumstances.

"You had it?"

She winced. Her voice was gone, only a strain of audibility left, and every word rubbed unpleasantly against her raw esophagus. Shame made her blush intensify. She shouldn't have been embarrassed—Crim had seen her at her worst—but it still felt…

"Yeah. I don't really remember what I saw, but it was a lot better than whatever you did. It usually just weirded me out."

"'Weirded out'? Really?"

"Not everyone has your fancy vocabulary," Crim teased gently, nudging her. "But that's a good sign. You're already all haughty again. You can't be too hurt."

Elf gave a tentative smile, trying to swallow past the ragged dryness in her throat.

"You want to talk about what you saw?"

The smile fell away and she averted her gaze.

"If it's personal, I understand. I may not remember what I saw, but I know it embarrassed me." He loosened his grip around her shoulders a little. "Scooch over and let me check your stitches, then I'll take you to Nature's office."

She gave him a Look. "No one else needs to know."

"We can just say the apple made you sick. At least get a cough drop or something for your throat—that'll be bothering you for days."

He gently tapped her shoulder, and she scooched to the side to allow him better access to her arm. He rolled her sleeve up carefully, unwrapping her bandages. "I was planning on getting you alone so I could change these things anyway, so might as well kill two birds with one stone."

"You need to worry about your brother. Not me."

"Elf, I have three siblings who all have a death wish. I can worry about more than one person at a time." He checked her stitches over before pulling a hidden roll of bandages from the folds of his robe and wrapped it around her arm. "I need to get medical supplies from the infirmary anyway, so bringing you gives me an excuse and a distraction to grab some stuff."

She kept looking away, avoiding his gaze. He understood her reluctance to go.

"Come on. I'll get stuff for Red, too."

"…" She brushed herself off and stood up.

"I can take you out for ice cream too, if that makes the deal any better."

He obviously had meant to slip that in, but his voice was a little tighter and his movements a little more jerky when he got up. Blood rushed to Elf's face, making the blotchy skin completely red to her roots, and she could see through the dim light that Crim was blushing just as hard.

The silence stretched uncomfortably.

"But, you know, it's okay if you don't want it. I'll just carry your books or—"

"N-no. Ice cream sounds… nice. I'll hold you to it." Elf's ears twitched madly and she quickly ducked out of the stuffy closet. She was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic.

"Oh, r-really?" Crim was next to her, blushing, and he nervously pulled at his shirt. "Great! I'll, um, I'll meet you in the dining hall after dinner hours? That's when they usually have the treats out."

"Aren't we not allowed to go into the dining hall after dinner hours?"

"That's why I say I'm taking you." He gave a nervous smile. "My brother and I figured out how to get in. The ice cream's only meant for staff, but they never go until Lights Out, so we don't get caught."

"That sounds exciting. Let us hope that you don't need to stitch my arm afterwards."

They both had an awkward laugh before blushing hard and looking in opposite directions, unable to look at each other until Crim finally cleared his throat.

"So, let's get you to the infirmary."

Both of them simultaneously wished the other would hold their hand while they went, but neither were brave enough to instigate it.

Crim smiled bashfully, then led the way down the hall.

For a moment, his eye was missing and his face was covered in blood again.

Elf tucked a lock of purple hair behind her ear and ran after him.

* * *

A/N: I spent a lot of time revamping this chapter, so I'm not sure how well I edited, but meh. Hope you enjoyed it! :)


	10. Does this School Even HAVE Security?

"Nature?"

The infirmary was a separate building from everything else—a small trailer-sized place with a tiny porch where three old women sat in rocking chairs, knitting giant wall hangings. Crim led Elf past the ladies, who didn't even glance up from their knitting, and pushed into the office.

Nature was sitting on top of her desk, her toes wiggling a little and tests she was grading in her lap. There were three beds across the room, one occupied by a sleeping Halfling, an apple core clutched in his hands. An old woman sat near Nature's desk, leaning against the back of her rocking chair and swaying gently, a smile on her weathered face. A flashlight (maybe to compensate for poor night vision) sat in her lap, and her long silver hair was in a big braid that rested on her bosom. A gray robe hid the rest of her from view, save for the gray eyes that rested on the new arrivals.

Nature looked up from her papers, her ears twitching madly, and for a brief moment, her expression showed something like shame and fear. Crim only had to blink before it was gone. It had to have been his imagination.

"Crim? Elf? Hey, sit down and I'll be right with you."

Elf sat down on one of the unoccupied beds, glancing at Halfling. She hadn't seen him since he had gotten Red and the boys in trouble. She wondered what he had suffered because no one had vouched for him.

Crim tried to be discreet in sneaking medical supplies from the shelves, and Nature pretended to not notice, provoking a soft chuckle from the old woman.

Nature seemed to be making the final corrections on the test, writing out the scores at the top. "What's the problem, Elf?"

"She ate a spoiled apple. It made her sick," Crim said quickly, sparing Elf the pain of trying to talk.

"Oh?"

Nature's expression changed imperceptibly and her eyes flicked to the old woman in the rocking chair. "Oh really."

The old woman smiled serenely, rocking gently back and forth. "You'd think for an orchard, this place would have _more_ apples."

"There's not a high demand. We take care of the trees because no one else will," Nature murmured evasively, looking back at the papers.

"Yes, that's regrettable, isn't it? That there's not a demand, I mean." The old woman looked towards Elf, smiling kindly. Her face was ancient, covered with wrinkles and spots, but there was something comforting in that. "Apples are very good for you, you know. More people should eat them."

Elf cocked her head, wondering if she should smile but failing in her confusion. Who was this lady?

"But of course, you're young. You don't have to pay so much attention to health." The woman leaned her head against the back of the chair, rocking again. The rhythmic creak of the chair groaning under her slight weight and the floor grumbling softly in protest was very soothing. It seemed to be affecting everyone else as well, as Nature's eyelids drooped a little, the tension in Crim's ears and shoulders relaxed, and Halfling's sleep seemed to become more peaceful. "Youth. It does things. Some wonderful, and some not so much."

Her wrinkled face creased with a smile, those gray eyes sparkling gently. "They say that children are innocent. Yes, they are. It's a pity that innocence doesn't come hand in hand with kindness, though." She was looking at Elf knowingly, slowly resting a weathered hand in her lap on top of the flashlight. "Children are cruel because they don't suffer, and even when they do, they don't know it. Suffering polishes us. It makes us sympathetic, kind, and wise. Children don't have the luxury of suffering to guide them."

"Some children are kinder as kids than as adults," Nature pointed out softly, not really paying attention to the tests anymore.

"When you let suffering make you jaded and bitter, yes, you become cruel," the woman allowed, her eyes drifting to the teacher with that gentle smile still in place, "but those few are the poor souls worthy of pity."

"Sometimes suffering isn't good. Sometimes it shatters a person," Nature countered again, pulling at the corner of one of the papers.

"When the suffering breaks you, it's no longer a question of kindness or cruelty, but of how much time it would take to put you back together." Her gaze went to Crim. "Or maybe how much love and compassion."

Crim frowned quizzically. What were they talking about?

"Sometimes an adult is beyond hope. Sometimes you have to give them up," Nature said again, blinking to wake herself from the dreamy trance the rocking put everyone in.

"Are they beyond hope, or beyond your hope?" The old woman folded her hands together, resting her chin against her chest. "All this talk of philosophy has put me in a mood for a little nap. Young man, would you be a dear and give me one of those blankets in the cupboard, please? It's getting a little chilly."

Crim jumped a little in surprise, frowning for a moment. There was something strange about the woman's voice. Like the voice of a thousand old souls, all their experience and wisdom and peace molded together. It sounded… nice.

He went to do as she said, kneeling on the floor to take out a nice thick wool blanket from a simple wooden cabinet and carefully laying it on her lap. The woman looked up at him, and for a strange moment, he could swear that he could see the world in her eyes.

"Thank you. There needs to be more gentlemen in this world."

She spread out the blanket over her legs, her smile still on her face, and she left the flashlight between the wool and her gray robe.

Nature put her papers down and hopped off the desk, picking up a cloth folded on one of the shelves and pulling out a tall clay jar from under the table, water sloshing within. "Elf, lie back. A good sleep will probably help you."

Elf frowned, then obediently lay down on the bed, pulling a blanket over her body. The ache in her heart kept throbbing. She felt weight on her stomach, like someone was lying on top of her, and she longed to be able to touch the phantom pressure and stroke its head and shower its face with kisses, but she didn't dare raise her hands to try. If she went to touch it and found that there was nothing there again, she really would break down and cry.

There was no voice in her head telling her to deal with it anymore.

"That's the problem with medicine. It takes away the suffering a child needs to grow up."

Nature looked back at the woman, her face sad, before she dipped her cloth in the jar and squeezed a little excess liquid out, walking to Elf.

"I've found that sometimes…"

She sat down beside the teenage girl, running a hand against her hair before wiping her brow with the wet towel.

"It's best if suffering is forgotten."

Elf closed her eyes dizzily, something painful slipping away from her again, and she fell asleep.

* * *

"Wake up, runt."

Patch woke when someone twisted his ear painfully, provoking a yelp of pain, and his eye snapped open to see Ms. Feelgood sitting against him on his bed, her frozen smile replaced by a dark frown.

"Ms. F—"

Her hand clamped on his mouth and she leaned in uncomfortably close, something very wrong with those beady blue eyes. "Where did she hide it?"

His eyebrows shot up and he squirmed, and he realized that his hands and legs were restrained even though he couldn't see why. The door was closed and the shades were down. He was all alone with the teacher, and she looked really, _really_ unhinged at the moment.

"I _know_ you know!"

She slapped him across the face, eliciting a surprised exclamation.

"_Tell_ me or beatings won't be the worst that happens!"

Patch shook his head violently, trying to draw away but unable to. "What are you going on about, you psycho?"

"You know what. She wouldn't be able to destroy it. She's too _weak._" The teacher's expression twisted in ugly fury, morphing into something not right, and she stood up, going to his desk. "You're not about to say that you don't know. You all have been practically feasting on apples."

"What the _hell?_" Patch squirmed again, trying and failing to sit up. "Are you nuts?"

"No? Well, I was hoping you would say that." She picked up an apple from his desk that hadn't been there before, skulking towards him like some kind of cougar.

Okay, that was a really bad choice of words. Ew.

"It's more fun this way."

She dug her nails into the apple's flesh, making juice gather in the wound, and forced it to his mouth.

It felt like electricity on his tongue.

_"Big Brother?" _

_His brother stiffened, the red-clothed back straightening up like a board. The crimson was menacing next to the stormy black and green background outside their cave. It looked like his brother was covered in blood. "Little Brother? You should be sleeping. It's really late and rest will help your face heal up."_

_He uncomfortably pulled at his new eye patch, but he was careful to not touch his wound, because Big Brother had told him that he could get infected that way. He walked forward, his ears twitching, and tried to avoid getting a look at his brother's face. "I… Nightmare."_

_"Nightmare." _

_There was a pause while his big brother shifted in a more comfortable position. "Well, come here, rugrat."_

_He smiled tentatively and quickly crawled into his brother's lap, throwing away his usual boyish cockiness in favor of his brother's comfort. Strong green arms wrapped around him, tight and warm, and his brother leaned back so they both were partially lying down. "Don't make a habit of this. You're heavy." _

_"I'm not fat!"_

_"I dunno, Little Brother. You've been eating all the food I can bring back, and it's starting to show," his brother teased gently before touching his head, nothing but love in the gesture. "Sleep, alright? I'm right here. No humans are going to come and hurt you while I'm around." _

_"I know, Big Brother." _

_He snuggled close to his brother's chest, careful to keep his tearstained face from view. He didn't want his big brother to see that he had been crying. Only babies cried. Babies and little girls. _

_He couldn't admit to himself that that wasn't really the reason he didn't look at his brother's face. The real reason was that he knew his brother's cheeks were just as tearstained as his._

_He didn't want to see that._

The teacher was groaning, something really disturbing to the sound.

"No, no, not that. Though that's entertaining and deliciously depressing."

Patch was brought back to reality with another sharp twist of his ear and he gasped for air, tears gathering in the back of his eyes without reason and throat closing up on itself.

Big Brother… what happened to make him cry?

"Why don't we fast forward a little, hmm? After your first memory loss. Things before that are useless for anything but entertainment."

The woman's eyes were gleaming hungrily and her chest was heaving. Her face was missing it's usual tightness, the sharp features that made her look so much like a hawk. Everything about her fluffy, loose blond hair, her strangely orange gold eyes (hadn't they been blue a moment before?), and her pale face was flawless, yet there was something there, some subtle thing that he couldn't really distinguish, that made her completely repulsive to look at.

She pressed her hand on his forehead and there was the strangest feeling in his brain, like something was being pulled and unwound like a string, and she forced more apple juice in his mouth.

_"Dad, I don't get it. How did this…?"_

_"I don't have the slightest clue, Ridi." _

_He grimaced at the wound on his son's arm. It was superficial, but the implications weren't good. "Stay still. I'll bandage it up." _

_He shifted uncomfortably in the cramped safe house (honestly, it could pass as a closet) trying to take down a first aid kit from the shelves without bringing a avalanche of bottles and cracker boxes on top of them. "Do you think Mom and Little Brother got out?"_

_"Of course. I saw them run out before we did." He sat back down with a kit in hand, opening it up and pulling out bandages. Wow. He hadn't expected to ever need to use medicine again after he died. With any luck, he had remembered how to do it. "Hold out your arm." _

_His son did so, still frowning quizzically. "…What were those people who attacked us? They looked human but… not." _

_"Do you remember what I told you about your uncle's Plan?" _

_Ridi stiffened, expression darkening. "What about it?"_

_He looked towards the door, closing his eye as the ground underneath them started to rumble. "I think he's done something we'll all regret."_

"Still too early, runt."

Another unwinding. His brain stuttered painfully, a migraine blasting from the base of his head, but then he was pulled back in, less deep this time.

_"Why the hell are you helping him? Do you even remember why you stopped speaking with each other?"_

_"Ali, what do you expect me to do?" He rubbed his temples, tired of having this debate with himself and not eager to have it with his ex-wife. "He's in serious trouble. He tried to kill himself. He gouged out his own eyes, for God's sake!"_

_"He _murdered_ this whole family!"_

_"Not any of you," he said sharply, frowning tightly. "This whole family has a grudge against Xykon, but I'm the only one with a reason to have a grudge against him. None of you lost a husband or a father. You were gone when it happened." _

_Normally, she was a calm and kind-hearted woman, but it wasn't a secret that she loathed his brother, and he was getting a face full of that at the moment as she threw up her hands and spun on her heels, stomping to the sink to start washing heavy pots and pans to keep herself from throwing one at him. "You're not talking about giving him money or something, this is _living_ with him and his girlfriend. I'm shocked you're even thinking about it." _

_"Who else does he have, Ali?" _

_"His girlfriend."_

_It sounded so cold coming from her. Like his brother had just fallen into some bad luck and he had some goblin girl he'd been dating for a bit putting him up. Nothing about that image connected with the memories—the sounds of his brother's shrieking, the gaping holes in his face, the awful grinning slices in his abdomen and neck, an elf with purple hair covered in his blood…_

_He sighed and shook his head. The awful part about it was that he couldn't shake the feeling that he had done something that he didn't remember to make that happen. _

_He wouldn't deny his anger, hurt, and betrayal for his brother. It stung, like a hornets' nest in his heart, but no matter how angry he was, he had _never_ wished something so horrible on him._

_"No, I mean besides her."_

_She opened her mouth, then closed it, thinking._

_"Exactly." He started rubbing his temples again. "I don't know if I have or will or even _can_ forgive him for what he did. For right now, I'm willing to set it aside. Vaarsuvius can't do this alone. I'm all he has left."_

The teacher scowled, glaring at him. "Now that one wasn't even fun. It was just sappy."

More unwinding. He let out a sputter, a garbled sentence swallowed and stuck to his throat, his head spinning.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you: I'm probably giving you brain damage. Forward a little more."

_"Oh gods…" _

_Soft moist skin ran under his palm, heaving with heavy breath and groans, and soft lips seared his own. The guilt of the moment was gone. There was just fire in his gut, consuming him with desire as he touched and kissed like he would never be allowed to again, listening as her breathing hitched and quickened as he let go of anything but the primal hunger pumping through his veins._

_"Gods… Adeak…!"_

"Whoa, I do _not_ want to see that!" She jerked back in disgust while Patch gasped for air dizzily, unable to sort through the mess of signals and emotions sparking off in his brain. He wanted to break down and cry and go on a furiously violent rampage at the same time. There was an awful ache there, a tangible absence in his head, like he was keeping something from himself. He mentally pawed at it weakly, only to be shocked by a wave of unbearable shame, guilt, and grief. "She really is a whore, isn't she?"

_Don't say that, you bitch! You'll never even be half the person Vaarsuvius is!_

The inner voice almost turned into an outer voice, but Patch swallowed it back nauseously, trying to stifle the sure sign of insanity as much as possible. Hearing voices was… bad… and antagonizing the crazy lady while he was tied down was probably worse.

"I'll be sure to find more excuses to beat her. Fucking your boyfriend's brother while he's sick?" A disturbing smile crossed her face. "It's so… entertainingly vile. But it's not what I wanted to know. I think you need to go a touch forward in time."

His brain buzzed uncomfortably against his skull and he squirmed weakly, but his eye rolled and he was pulled back in.

_His new lover was trancing fitfully as usual, but at least she was trancing. Her face was creased with upsetting memories, the nearly healed scratch on her cheek a gory testament to her troubles. He found himself wishing that he could reach out and wipe away those lines and scars, mental as well as physical. He would take away everything that made her upset and she'd finally be able to genuinely smile again—not that grim smirk she made when steeling herself, not that grimace when she was contemplating the situation, not that weak upturn of the lips she tried to make when clumsily attempting to be gentle towards his brother, but that somewhat manic grin she made before when she was about to unleash a storm of magic on an enemy, or that softer yet happier smile she used to have whenever his brother said something romantic or kissed her or held her hand… but all that was beyond his power. There was only one man who could do that for her. _

_He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt a pang of something similar to jealousy. _

_Now that he had a chance to really look at her, without her anger or grief or distance disfiguring her features, it occurred to him that she was beautiful. Certainly not in the traditional goblin sense—for a female, large tusks were a major factor in beauty as well as bust and hip size, since the first implied the ability to protect children and the latter two implied fertility—nor was she even obviously female. Exotic to be sure, which sometimes contributed to one's attractiveness, but she lacked the characteristics normally required for beauty. _

_Yet she was beautiful. _

_He tore his eye away to keep himself from focusing on her too hard. He had difficulty sleeping as it was, though he had to admit that finally sharing his bed with a woman during this trying time helped. He and Ali had decided when he died that they would not renew their marriage and see others, as most couples did, and if they found that they didn't really have an interest in anyone else, they would get married again._

_They had been very close to deciding on marriage when he left to help his brother, and Ali hadn't spoken to him since. _

_It occurred to him that he finally had found another woman that interested him, though ironically enough, she was unattainable in every sense besides a physical one. _

_He sighed softly before pulling away from her, standing up from the bed and picking up a pair of pajama pants. He wasn't very sure what he'd do, but he knew well enough to realize that he wouldn't sleep anytime soon if he didn't do something to take the edge off. Maybe a drink to make it easier? He did that sometimes back when his eldest son had finally stopped crying at all hours of the night, but he still stayed awake in expectation. _

_He'd been specifically avoiding alcohol since he had come here. He knew well enough how easy it would be to just keep drinking to numb what was happening with his brother, and he'd be of no use to anyone if he became an alcoholic. But this was just to sleep, so it wouldn't matter, would it? _

_His lover shifted uncomfortably in her trance, face creasing more, and a shiver traveled up her body. It struck him how unhealthy and worryingly thin she had become. _

_He made a mental note to return to her quickly and make her eat something substantial in the morning. _

_He leaned down and planted a feather-light kiss on her brow._

_He stepped out into the hall and quietly padded towards the kitchen, but as he drew near, he could hear running water. _

_His ears perked and he grimaced, picking up his pace a little. He had put locks on the silverware drawer and his brother had been complacent about having his claws cut ever since he had hurt his ex, but the elder goblin's ability to find a sharp object wasn't to be underestimated. _

_It wasn't right that he was constantly afraid that his brother would try to kill himself again. _

_He came to the kitchen doorway, looking into the small white room. His brother had his back to him, washing something that (for once) wasn't his hands._

_"Big Brother?"_

_His brother turned off the sink and put something on the drying rack, not bothering to turn around to speak. "Yes?"_

_He had to shift to that his brother had put a glass on the rack, specifically a glass meant for alcohol. "It's really late. You shouldn't be awake."_

_"Neither should you." His brother turned around, but apparently he smelled something because his nose wrinkled and he recoiled a little, turning his head away. The scent of alcohol was in the air, and not any one kind. "Vaarsuvius is the one who usually wakes up to scold me."_

_"She's trancing and I was already coming here." He frowned, warily walking forward, half-expecting his brother to lash out. "What are you doing up?"_

_"I could ask the same question." _

_He tried to keep his expression neutral, despite the uselessness of the gesture, but he couldn't help but wince inwardly when his eye rested on the solid black band across his brother's face. _

_"Big Brother, don't be difficult. I'm just trying to help." He came forward a little, but he remembered the scratch on the elf's face. He didn't make a move to touch his brother. "I'm just making sure you're okay." _

_"Alright. You've made sure I'm okay." His brother seemed to be drawing away from him, sensing where he was from the sound of his voice and reflexively getting further away. "Now go to sleep."_

_He sighed in exasperation, resisting the urge to snap. "Big Brother, please don't be that way. You know I get uncomfortable when you're in the kitchen without V or me around." _

_"I'm not going to try to kill myself again. I know that's useless with you two breathing down my neck." His brother drew away again, his nose wrinkling, and he turned his face so no one could see it. "Go back to bed. Vaarsuvius's nightmares always get bad when she's left in the middle of the night." _

_"She—" He stopped, the blood draining from his face. "…What are you talking about with Vaarsuvius? I don't…"_

_"Don't get cute, Little Brother," his brother said curtly, keeping his face out of view. "You're good about being quiet, and I probably wouldn't have heard anything if I wasn't blind, but it turns out that it's hard to not hear things when that's all you can do."_

_"…" Guilt seized his heart, even though he knew it wasn't completely necessary. Vaarsuvius and his brother were apart now. His brother had been the one to make it so. "If you're saying we're sleeping together, then I'm telli—"_

_"I swear, if you lie to me, then I'm never going to trust you again."_

_He stopped short, self-consciously crossing his arms across his chest, the phantom of Vaarsuvius's touches burning his skin. _

_"I smell sex. And I smell her."_

_The last word had a strange inflection to it. There was emotion there, but he was hiding it. _

_It sounded like longing. _

_He backed away from his blind brother, the shame written on his face. "How long have you known?" _

_"I don't know. I can't tell time. Two or three weeks, I think." _

_He winced, biting his lip and finally letting go of any attempt to keep from giving any visual cues to his brother. "Big Brother, it's always been you she wanted." _

_"Oh really?" his brother said, voice dry and devoid of any real emotion._

_"Yes! It's you she dotes on, you she thinks about, you who she still _loves!_" The words stuck a little to his throat, but he forced them out. "I'm there to give her comfort. I'm not the man she loves. I can't make her smile or laugh or even make all her nightmares go away—all that are things only _you_ can do. All I can do is make it less difficult." _

_"Mm. I'll keep that in mind when I hear you fucking her."_

_He winced, unable to really take the sound of his brother's dry yet deadened voice coupled with that word in stride, and he struggled with himself for a moment. It would be so much easier if his brother just started shouting and throwing things. It'd be so much less torturous than these cold words with hidden bitterness at their core._

_"Big Brother, we never meant to hurt you. She just… we just needed something to hold onto. I never had her for one moment; she's always been yours. I was only trying to—"_

_His brother shook his head, crossing his arms and leaning back as if they were discussing business, the undertone of bitterness gone from his posture. "You don't need to explain yourself, Little Brother. I haven't touched her in months and have no interest to. You both can do what you want." _

_He frowned in confusion, backing away from his blind brother. "You don't care?"_

_"No."_

_He stood in silence for a moment, blinking in shock. "You can't mean that."_

_"I can and do." His brother turned, his face still hidden, and he turned on the faucet. "Go back to bed. She hates being alone with the nightmares."_

_He paused, then shook his head, frowning. "I don't believe you. Pushing her away isn't helping her, Big Brother. It's—"_

_"I'm not pushing her away." His brother started washing his hands again, face still turned so he couldn't see it. The smell of soap quickly overpowered the smell of alcohol. "I don't care about it anymore. I'm sure you two are enjoying each other's company."_

_He tried to remind himself of the sheer impossibility of that sentiment, but his disbelief was ebbing. His brother had barely reacted to any of part of their relationship, even after hearing them. But that couldn't be because…_

_"She means the world to you. We both know that."_

_"I'm not interested anymore. I don't want to touch and kiss her again, I don't want to have any deep conversation, and I don't even want her to stay here, in this nuthouse. She's only staying because I used to help her when she had problems and she feels like she has a debt. She's not the self-sacrificing type." _

_His jaw fell, the tendons in his neck starting to tighten and his fists clenching. "Why are you saying any of this? Do you know how much you mean to her?"_

_"I don't mean much. Look how quickly she moved on to me after she broke it off with Inkyrius, or to you after I broke up with her. She's a fascinating woman in the short run, but not a good consistent one. That's fine. I don't care."_

_"…" He opened his mouth, then closed it, unable to sort through the emotions closing his throat up to identify them, but there was one dominant feeling that rose above the rest. It was rage._

_"…She _loves_ you."_

_His brother started scrubbing his skin until it was raw, keeping his face turned away. _

_"I don't love her." _

_He didn't know what he was doing until his brother had been slammed into the wall by the force of his punch. "You cold-hearted BASTARD!"_

_His brother slumped to the floor with a pained groan, rubbing his bruising jaw._

_"Do you have _any_ idea how much you're killing her? She doesn't eat, she doesn't sleep, and she hasn't taken one step outside all because of you! For every time you go to wash your damn hands again or you wake up screaming from a nightmare, she agonizes over it! I have to hold her back to keep her from running off to you to get hit again! All of her nightmares? They're not about soldiers or warfare or dragons anymore. They're about _YOU!_"_

_His brother, having straightened out a little, was thrown against the wall by another punch._

_"You have _no idea_ how much you've hurt her." _

_He stood there, chest heaving, glaring at his brother with the kind of fury he hadn't felt since his death, and not even the sight of the macabre grinning scar on his brother's throat made him stop. The blind one straightened up once more, still rubbing the forming bruises, but he didn't make a movement to face him. _

_"Vaarsuvius isn't the type to agonize over others," he said quietly, an infuriating lack of emotion there. "She'll be over it soon enough. I'm sure you'll make her happy."_

_The younger one clenched his fists and teeth furiously, visions of Vaarsuvius's progressively worse health running through his head. "You've made her _cry._"_

_That provoked a pause. _

_"Vaarsuvius doesn't cry. Especially not over people. She gets angry and blasts things with spells." _

_His glare was so intense that he was sure his brother could feel the burn on his cheek. "Not when she's lost hope." _

_"…" His brother put his hand on the edge of the counter and felt his way back to the still-running sink, picking up soap and washing his hands. _

_"Now don't tell me you don't love her anymore, because if you don't, then I will tell her to leave and stop torturing herself over helping you. I won't let her sacrifice her life for your miserable sake." _

_His brother was still washing his hands, his face out of view. _

_"She's the reason I gouged out my eyes. She's the reason I won't let anyone heal them." _

_He stiffened in surprise, ears twitching. "What?"_

_"I couldn't stand the sight of her." The scabbing sores on his skin began to open again with the ferocity of his washing. "Tell her to go. She'll only be hurt if she keeps trying to take care of me."_

_"…" He backed away, glaring, and walked out the door. "Go to hell, Redcloak." _

_His footsteps were the only thing to tell his brother that he was leaving. _

_There was a tense pause where only the sound of the faucet reigned._

_His brother's hands were trembling hard under the jet of water, and finally, he broke down and cried, but only the water was privy to his heartbreak._

_It was the best for her. It had to be._

_He couldn't make her happy anymore. _

He felt like he would throw up.

In fact…

Ms. Feelgood recoiled and forced him on his side, his restraints apparently having disappeared, and he threw up on the floor, filling the room with a sour, sickly smell, and the migraine was bursting in his brain, making the light itself hurt, and whatever she was doing to him, he knew that it wasn't right. It was breaking something inside his head.

"Big Brother!"

"Almost there."

_"Vaarsuvius…"_

_He stopped talking. There wasn't anything he could say to make it better._

_She was cradling something to her chest, though her body was angled so he couldn't get a good look at it. Tears were running down her cheeks, making some kind of grieving mask, but not a sound came from her lips and not so much as a shudder ran through her frame. _

_"I could have stopped it."_

_Whatever she was holding, she stroked it and began rocking it with tenderness rarely associated with her. He was a little scared that the memories combined with his brother's trauma had broken her. It was unsettling to see her like this—the only sign of grief being tears and nothing else, barely even an expression. _

_"…I think that, if you could have stopped it, you would have."_

_There was an unbearable silence as she continued to stare at the river roaring past. There was something to her uncharacteristic quiet and passivity that deeply frightened him._

_"What are you going to do?" _

_This silence was somehow much more terrifying than the last._

_"I mean, do you want to talk it over with Big Brother? He has a right to decide with you." _

_He silently prayed that she would step away from the edge of the river. _

_"I'm going to make sure that the gods cannot prolong this suffering anymore. No more power plays. No more pettiness. No more cruelty." She nudged a stone into the water. "I see now why Red forsook the Dark One. I see why he hates him."_

_She finally looked back at him, and past the layer of tearstains, her eyes were the hardest he'd ever seen them. _

_"We have a responsibility to destroy the horrors we released on the world, no matter how painful the decision is."_

_With that little declaration, she closed her eyes. One final tear gathered at the her lashes, glittering by the divine starlight, before splashing into the river._

"What?"

Patch slumped, drenched in sweat and migraine so painful his eye watered, tears of exhaustion and agony rolling without any notice from him, but the teacher didn't pay mind. Ms. Feelgood pulled away, her apple falling to the floor and rolling away.

"She… she actually considered…" She let out a laugh, shaking her head. "No way she went through with it. No way."

The fumes from his own sick was only making his stomach churn again and his head let out another seismic wave, doubled when the teacher grabbed his ear and pulled his head back painfully, provoking only a moan. The room spun. He tried to grapple with himself, attempting to remember how this torture started and who it was that was holding his head, but everything in his head was fluid. What was her name?

There was warmth in his ear. Blood was oozing sluggishly from within it down his neck.

"Now we'll see what she _really_ did with it, hmm?"

Something was crawling under his skin. His only eye lulled down, rolling a little in the socket, to see that a lump was forming on his arm. The lump burst open and a thousand spiders scurried out, crawling all over his arm, then his chest, then legs, then face. He dropped his jaw a little to say something, but his head pounded again and he deemed it too painful to scream.

"You may die soon, but I'm sure you won't mind. It's for a good cause." Her laugh felt like a thousand ice shards. The spiders were everywhere. "Well, my cause."

Her hand went to his head again.

"What are you doing here?"

Sharp was standing at the doorway, but he was blurred, like Patch's vision had been a painting that had been inside a flood of smudging water. The spiders exploded, sending tingles of electricity through his flesh, and they floated up in shiny red bubbles.

Red.

So red.

Crimson.

The bubbles popped and their red liquid was falling to the ground again.

The hand on his head tightened, then was gone.

"What do you mean, Sharp?"

Her voice was honey again. Nothing like the dry, sardonic tone she had briefly taken. Her lips were moving and sound was coming out, but he didn't have any idea how to string the noises together in his head and understand them, and he no longer had the ability to appreciate the difference in that. Her skin stretched out, those gold eyes turned blue, and she became humanly homely again.

That awful frozen smile was back.

"You…" The man furrowed his brow, as if he were having difficulty remembering what he was going to say. "You're not supposed to be here. It's a boy's dorm. That boy looks like he needs a doctor."

She stood up, the blue eyes narrowing into beady slits. "I think you should go and watch the boys, Sharp. You don't know when they'll start taking advantage of all the whores in this school."

"No."

The woman stiffened, smile tightening.

Sharp frowned and came forward quickly, whatever invisible force keeping him away straining until it started coming apart, and he cupped Patch's face gently, those steel gray eyes searching his own, unable to find anything but fog. "What's eight times seven?"

The crimson sprinkled his face, his clothes, his hands… Howls from all around…

_rows and rows of dying soldiers, many coughing and wheezing, trying to breathe past the blood pouring from their noses, yellow blisters covering their entire bodies, wide blind eyes staring up as they convulsed and not even the clerics could do a thing for it_

"Soon… yer… killed Sister…"

The lady with the frozen smile was gone. Sharp's expression creased with concern and he slipped his arms under the boy, trying his best to not put pressure on the sore lash and glass wounds.

"You need to see a medic."

_skin torn from their bones by blasts and shrapnel sticking out of convulsing men, women, and children, their mouths wide with pleas to end the pain but the pain will never end because death doesn't save anyone anymore no it doesn't the afterlives are all gone and Hades has died_

"'Suvius ah Redcl goin' to bring 'er back. 'Ris tryin' t…"

"What happened to you?"

The man cradled the teenager a little closer, his urgency, numbed by whatever the previous teacher had done, was starting to surface as he carefully stepped out of the room and called behind him.

"Serpent, watch the dorm!"

A red-haired teacher with a purple serpentine dragon tattooed on his face stuck his head out of a door, opening his mouth to speak, but his glare morphed into surprise and horror quickly. "By the gods!"

"I don't know what happened, but he's very ill."

_"you're reddy's brother?" different colored eyes scowling at him from twitching elf with half its face and an arm blasted off and blood spattered on her and pooled and that one little orange eye wide with fear and pain and the mouth opened and closed but no sound came out because those vocal cords had been destroyed and it was dying so so fast _

"Trickin'… tryin'… find 'er… promise to save her!"

The lights were stars, moving along the ceiling, giggling, before crawling down the wall and becoming a grinning assortment of black snakes with bloodied knives curled in their tails, tiny white foals galloping down with ruthlessness in their big gray eyes, and gray wolf-like dogs padding with the slowness that only came with a certainty that they had their prey.

The light hurt. He could hear his own heartbeat.

He glared at the animals, his eye rolling in its socket as they cackled and burst apart into a thousand gold and red apples.

"I'll watch the dorm. Just get that kid to Nature!"

"Goin' t' kill 'er… save 'er… only… thing 'll 'ver ask… Girard… Soon…"

There wasn't even a flicker of recognition in the mens' faces.

The gold apples hit the ground first. They shattered into a million glimmering pieces, and in each reflection, he saw bodies and blood and red-soaked sheets and purple eyes.

_their faces were like patchwork like someone broke a glass and put it together wrong like two jigsaw puzzles in one box but there wasnt anything real to make him see that way and there wasnt any rhyme or reason to the masks they strapped on before all the awful blistering gas flooded and raw hate radiated from their eyes and he wondered why were they doing this the Dark One said they were going to destroy the world but that made no sense how many lies were the gods telling and oh god the gas was burning_

His mouth was moving. He didn't know what he was saying. He registered that someone else had taken control, but he had lost the ability to understand that.

"I love… love… her… always have… no matt'r what she did, save 'er… save 'er from the gods… from the Dark One…"

The red apples finally hit the floor.

"Please…"

The apples exploded in foul-smelling crimson.

* * *

A/N: Like last time, I spent a lot of time revamping this chapter, so I'm not sure how well I edited. With any luck, I got everything across properly. Hope you enjoyed it! :)


	11. It All Comes Back to that Deal

_"Tiby, I know it's frightening, but we just need to think about it. The gods can't find us. There's no tactical reason for the war to come here, so the Makhai and the Androktasiai won't have a chance to find us, and the other gods wouldn't dare search so close to Styx, Acheron, and Lethe." There was a soft sound of lips meeting a cheek. "Have faith."_

_"It's hard to have faith."_

_Vaarsuvius clumsily handled the brush, built for a hand twice the size of her own, and ran it through her hair, uncomprehending of the conversation in the kitchen. "Parent! I'm going to go outside!"_

_She scurried towards the door, ducking her head down._

_"Stop right there, Suvie. I think I hear something like guilt in that little voice of yours."_

_She was too young to realize it, but her parent sounded very different from when she was talking a moment before. Vaarsuvius froze at the door, ready to grab the knob and run anyway, before she sighed and turned around. "Parent, I want to go out and play."_

_The smiling but disturbingly worn face of her Parent popped out from the kitchen door, only to shudder with suppressed laughter. "Suvie, is that _makeup_ you're wearing?"_

_Other Parent immediately looked out, his eyes looking strangely red and swollen, and he did a slightly better job of covering his amusement. "That _is!_ Aw, our Suvie's growing up."_

_Vaarsuvius pouted, blushing, and tried to cover her face, but Parent only chuckled softly and knelt in front of her, gently wiping away the colorful smears with the hem of her shirt._

_"Why don't I put it on, Suvie? Makeup takes lots of practice, and you don't want to look like you haven't practiced in front of your friend, do you?"_

_She shook her head, ears twitching. She had been too embarrassed to ask her parent or her other parent for help, but the wobbly lines of opaque lipstick and shadow she had made didn't seem to be quite right._

_Parent finished wiping it away, chuckling as she picked the child up, and Other Parent tapped Vaarsuvius's nose. "Barely forty and already playing with makeup. She's an early bloomer."_

_Vaarsuvius pouted and buried her face in Parent's neck._

_"Nothing to be embarrassed about, Suvie. Baby, do you mind getting the makeup from upstairs? I think light shades would work for her."_

_Other Parent nodded, still smiling, before kissing his daughter's temple and going upstairs._

_Parent sat her down on the table, pulling up a chair and looking at her as if it were possible she'd never see her again. "Did you want to impress Redcloak? Is that why you put it on?"_

_Vaarsuvius nodded shyly, averting her eyes and swinging her legs over the edge of the table._

_"Suvie, you know you're beautiful no matter what, right?" Parent reached out and tucked a lock of purple hair behind her daughter's ear. "I think he'd be impressed no matter what you did. He's a nice little boy."_

_She blushed and looked at her knees, still swinging her legs. "Thank you, Parent."_

_"Don't mention it, Sweetie." Parent leaned forward and gave her lips a big kiss. "Boys like it when you give them lots of kisses, too. Just a little tip."_

_Vaarsuvius smiled, and Other Parent came down holding a couple cases of makeup. With a flourish, Parent took the cases and got to work with ease despite the fact she almost never wore it if ever, so her child was unsure when she had practiced._

_"You don't really need it, Suvie. You're beautiful." Parent only applied a light layer of it, adding little but lip gloss and a blush. "And I know he'd love you no matter what you do."_

_Vaarsuvius nodded, grinning, and slid off the table._

_"Be a good girl. Stay with Hagan and don't go near the apple tree."_

_The child, barely out of toddlerhood, gave her parents another nod before scampering out of the house, unwilling to keep her friend waiting longer._

_Of course, when she approached the backyard where their properties met, she slowed down, keeping the visibility of her excitement to a minimum. She straightened her back and held her head high. She shouldn't look too eager._

_He was sitting at the roots of a tree on the edge of the forest lining their land, staring at the apple tree that their parents had expressly forbidden them from eating from, even going as far as planting spiky brambles and lotus blossoms around it and going outside every morning to take any yellow apples that had fallen on the ground overnight._

_When he saw her, he didn't have the same reservations about enthusiasm. He straightened, grinning, and his ears perked. "Suvie!"_

_He jumped up, holding out his hand, and the giant dog lying at his feet looked up, tail wagging when he saw Vaarsuvius. "I thought you wouldn't come."_

_"Of course I would." She tried to stop herself, but she couldn't keep the grin spreading across her face as she ran to close the gap between them. "I said so, didn't I? You have to do what you say."_

_"That's right."_

_She took his hand, smiling, and leaned in to give his cheek a butterfly kiss. He giggled, hugging her tight, and the dog, Hagan, sat up, his tongue lolling out before he leaned forward and gave Vaarsuvius's forehead a big, wet lick._

_"Hagan!" The elf girl pushed the dog away gently, though her protests were only for show. Redcloak squeezed her hand, rubbing the Rottweiler's side as the dog gave the elf another lick._

_"Stop it!" Vaarsuvius suppressed a giggle and scratched the giant dog's head, placating his desire for attention before he lay back on the ground, rolled on his side in the picture of contentment._

_Redcloak laughed a little before looking back at Vaarsuvius, giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek._

_"I brought this for you…" He blushed and held out a freshly picked daisy, smiling shyly. "I thought it'd look pretty in your hair."_

_She sat down, pulling him beside her, and crossed her legs. "Then put it in and we'll see."_

_Hagan panted cheerfully as Redcloak leaned forward, twisting the daisy's stem in her hair and letting it rest against her ear, making her shiver a little._

_"How does it look?" She sat up, looking back at him with that usual haughty but bright sparkle in her eyes._

_"Pretty." His smile got even shyer. "But I think it's you that's making the flower prettier."_

_"That's silly." She grinned, hiding her blush. "But thanks."_

_She gave him a kiss on his cheek, leaving a lip gloss mark and making him blush._

_Without warning, Hagan jumped up from the ground, almost knocking the children over, and his tail went straight up before a growl started deep in his throat. The kids stood, gazing at their dog in confusion, before Hagan let out a mighty bark that made the ground shake._

_The apple tree. He was looking at the apple tree._

_Or, more accurately, the shadowed person who had somehow climbed to one of the branches and the snake that was slithering along it._

_"They say that being a kid is about learning how to live."_

_Hagan started barking louder, squaring himself as though he were about to attack, but the voice had the kids on strings. It felt like they were being pulled to the thorns surrounding the tree._

_"But if being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die, isn't it?"_

_The glare of the sun intensified and the owner of the voice stood up on the branch, plucking out an apple._

_"So what do you think, kids: is it time for you to learn how to die?"_

_Hagan let out a mighty bark and charged towards the tree, overtaking the children before they could move any closer. The snake curled around the branch drew back and struck._

The image fell, melting, and was washed away, nothing but an imprint left on the beach behind.

"Elf?"

She opened her eyes sleepily.

"C'mon. Up and at 'em."

Someone put their hand between her shoulder blades and sat her up in bed, snapping a their fingers in her face.

Elf blinked awake, shaking her head, then looked up to see Red standing beside her, pointedly not sitting in a chair.

Red…

"Good. I was hoping I wouldn't need a new roommate."

Red smiled, leaning on the edge of the bed and patting Elf's shoulder. The infirmary was empty save for them. The lights were off and the rocking chair, beds, and desks lay abandoned. All that was left was the lingering scent of apples.

"Crim told me what happened when I finally got outside. You need to get to your Rap or Feelgood will probably beat you."

Elf shook her head, clearing the fog from her brain, and stood up from the bed. "Well, she's certainly looking for an excuse."

"That's my girl." Red smiled, pushing the door open to let a rush of fresh air in. "I'm going to ask a boy to check on Patch. Crim wanted to do it himself, but Feelgood dumped him with tons of supervised work after he was late for taking you to the infirmary."

"Was he beaten?"

"Nah, Sharp was prowling around. I think Feelgood's scared of him or something."

Elf stifled a sigh of relief and nodded her head, combing her hair with her fingers before pulling it back in a ponytail. Being brought to the infirmary was embarrassing enough; she had to salvage her pride where she could.

"Well, thank you for finding me. I know it's painful to walk."

"No problem." Red's gait was awkward, but she was still smiling, some color coming back to her face. "I needed some fresh air. I was going stir-crazy."

They both walked out of the stuffy infirmary, hit by a wave of autumn cold. All the leaves were almost gone. Winter was beginning to draw near.

The old ladies in the rocking chairs were still knitting, apparently not having moved for however long Elf had been sleeping. They paid little mind to the girls, preferring to remain hunched over their intricate work. (Or only one of them was knitting. One had the yarn in her lap while she slowly unwound it, the second kept the yarn untangled, and the third actually knit.)

Despite the temperature, Tusk was sitting on the grass, leaning against the porch with Drow curled up in a fetal position next to her, his head in her lap. They were murmuring to each other softly while Tusk kept on tucking his white hair behind his ear, making sure the blanket wrapped around him was keeping his whole body warm.

Elf guessed that Drow hadn't fared well during the punishment either.

"Go and find someone to check on Patch. I'm sure your worried about your new paramour."

"Oh please. Paramour?" Red let out a laugh and carefully went down the stairs, trying to keep from disturbing the couple. "We're going out. Get with the lingo that started being used this century."

"It is not my fault that the general population's vocabulary has deteriorated." Elf started towards the dining hall, waving at Red. "But regardless, take care to not get caught by that woman again. I would hate to have to vouch twice in a month."

"Don't worry." Red winked, unable to run but trying to walk a little less awkwardly away. "I'll be a good girl."

Elf turned and trotted to the dining hall briskly, pushing her way in.

Tables were cleared away, leaving only a circle of chairs. Most people were already sitting, but there were some stragglers. Crim was sitting, looking grim, before he looked up and perked a little at the sight of her.

It would be a little too obvious if she allowed that growing idiot smile to cross her face and go to sit next to him.

Instead, she gave a small smile and walked slowly (maybe semi-slowly) to sit next to him.

"Glad to see you're back on your feet." Crim leaned back on his chair, smiling and resting his hands on his knees.

"Well, I was hardly going to allow something as insignificant as an apple incapacitate me for long, was I?"

"And you're full of yourself again. Good sign."

Elf smiled, trying to resist the blush that was beginning in her ears, and looked at the center of the floor, noticing that everyone was sitting.

The door opened, making everyone look up to see Scar coming through the door, giving a sheepish wave towards Ms. Feelgood, who sat at the front of the room liked a pleased bird, and quietly going to Crim.

He murmured something softly in the goblin's ear.

All the color drained from Crim's face and he was gone in a blink. Elf looked back after him, then gave a puzzled glance to Scar, but his eyes weren't on her.

"Nature's excused him."

Feelgood's face tightened, that creepily ever-present smile twitching. "Well, that's unfortunate, isn't it?"

Scar shifted nervously, nodding a little. "I guess?"

"Mmm." Feelgood crossed one leg over the other, blue eyes narrowing. "You're excused as well, Scar."

He hesitated, then nodded, leaving.

Elf immediately felt the teacher's eyes on her.

"Elf?"

The student turned to face forward in her seat, noticing that the entire room, filled with unfamiliar faces, was staring at her.

She tilted her chin up a little. "Yes?"

"Stand up."

Elf hesitated, tempted to give a defiant 'no', but stood up anyway, brushing herself off as nonchalantly as she could. When she had woken up from that rest in the infirmary, she had felt stronger than she had in days. She wouldn't let this harpy tear that down.

Ms. Feelgood's smile widened slightly and she pulled out a clipboard and a pencil from behind her chair, resting the tip lightly on the paper. "Okay, kids. I want everyone to tell me something bad that they think of Elf."

Elf's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but a halfling girl who had been tormented in the last Rap jumped up immediately.

"She's really full of herself."

A human boy was right on her heels.

"She talks too much."

A elven boy.

"She's condescending."

A half-elf girl.

"She's inconsiderate."

One by one, each student piped up, eager to use her as their sacrificial lamb so they wouldn't be the next in the spotlight. Dark red started crawling up the teenager's neck, but she struggled to keep any other signs of her feelings from showing.

"She acts like she knows everything in class, but really, she knows nothing."

"She treats everyone like she's better, but she's not. She's just a powerless coward full of hot air."

Elf swallowed past her dry mouth, setting her jaw grimly.

"She doesn't have any friends. She only has someone to sit with because her roommate's friends feel bad for her."

"No one likes you."

"You should go kill yourself. Is that why you're here? Did you try?"

"You should have succeeded."

"I bet you were too scared to go through it. Figures."

"Everyone would have been better off if you had."

She bit her tongue hard, grounding herself with that pain as her classmates became more and more vitriolic, their eyes narrowing with anger and bloodlust born only from the savagery brought on from fear and violence.

"When the teachers start scolding us, you check out. When we're outside trying to keep from getting beaten, you're all holed up in your cozy room. Is that what you always do? Avoid problems? Run away?"

"All the pride's an act."

"You have nothing to be proud of."

"You're not as smart as you think you are."

"You're not pretty."

"You're not friendly."

"You're not interesting."

"You're all around unlikeable."

They were saying these things not because they thought them, but because the worse they said, the less likely Feelgood would descend on them next.

She couldn't stop from hearing the little voice in the back of her head whispering that it might not be an act.

"You're nothing. Worse than nothing. All you do is bring everyone else down."

She bit down harder on her tongue, resolutely staring ahead.

"And you're never going to be more than that."

Ms. Feelgood put down her clipboard, revealing that she had been writing down everything said, and stood, walking to Elf with that insanely creepy smile.

"So, Elf, what do you have to say to all that?"

She grasped the teenager's wrists, pushing the sleeves back so only she and Elf could see the wrists, and consequentially, the systematically horizontal lines that crossed them up to beyond the sleeve.

For a moment, Elf wondered how they got there, because she certainly didn't remember making them.

Then the memories flooded in.

She tore her arms from the woman's hands, eyes on fire, and spat right in the teacher's face.

* * *

Crim sat beside his brother's bed, tucked away in a hidden backroom of the infirmary. Patch had been cleaned up and now he was sleeping fitfully, a little blood on his pillow from his ear, which had been helped as much as possible. He could wake up with partial hearing loss, and upsettingly enough, that was the least of his worries.

The teenager had long since cast male pride and insecurity to the wind and kept a tight grip on his brother's hand, lightly stoking the back of it.

"Little Brother?"

He winced at how small his voice sounded. What the hell was reassuring about that?

He edged his chair closer so his knees touched the mattress, keeping their intertwined hands on his lap.

"I'm here."

He wasn't sure how long he sat there. There wasn't a clock in the room, but the sun had gone down and the light was very dim. His brother kept on making displeased or frightened sounds in the back of his throat, face screwing up and body twisting, but never so violently that Crim had to let go of his hand.

"I'm in love with her. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Big Brother."

At the mumbled words, Crim let out a soft sigh of relief, swallowing hard. Speech. Speech meant that his brother wasn't brain damaged, right? Right?

"I'm sorry…"

He could hardly hear what his brother was saying, but he surmised that Patch was having some really strange fever dreams.

"It's okay, Little Brother. No girl gets between us, alright?"

Crim gently pushed his brother away from the edge of the bed, keeping him from accidentally hurting himself. With any luck, replying to his feverish outbursts calmed him down instead of made his dreams weirder.

"Ridi…"

Patch settled, his breathing evening out a little. Crim went back to stroking his hand, sighing softly and bowing his head, clinging to the hope that words signified his brother's returning health.

"I promise I won't leave."

The light got dimmer and dimmer until it was black. Patch didn't stir for a long while, but Crim couldn't even think about nodding off, his hope wavering in the face of doubt. What if he really was brain-damaged? Or worse?

The light from the infirmary turned off. No one came in to usher him out.

His brother didn't stir again.

He must have fallen asleep, because he woke up to someone touching his shoulder.

"Crim?"

He jumped in surprise, causing the hand to jerk away, and looked up to see who was talking.

"Elf?"

It was hard to see her, even with Darkvision, but that wasn't readily worrisome. Only one eye didn't really offer very good sight, so he had gotten used to it a long time ago. She held out a notebook with a few loose papers inside.

"I thought you wouldn't have time to do your homework."

His eyebrows shot up. "What?"

She scowled, shaking the notebook a little, and he noticed that the foul temperament she had had during their first meeting had arisen again. "Take it. I don't want that vile woman searching my room and finding homework written in _your_ handwriting."

"…" He reached out with his free hand, taking the book and resting it on the bed. "…Thank you."

"Hmph." She crossed her arms across her chest and turned away, stepping to the door.

"Wait."

She stopped walking away, but she didn't turn back around.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine. What would make you think otherwise?"

He arched an eyebrow dryly. "Just because I'm missing an eye doesn't mean I'm blind."

There was a pause, then elf turned to face him, keeping her arms crossed and her hips to the side, body language completely closed off. "Focus on your brother. I'm fine."

The way she stood, the scarce starlight illuminated her face just enough for him to notice some very dark discoloration on her face.

"Is that a black eye?"

She sidestepped away from the light. "I'm _fine._"

He opened his mouth even though he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say. His mind quickly flicked through reasons she could have possibly received a black eye and potentially several other injuries in the few hours since he had seen her last. He wasn't sure how he felt about it.

"Did you get beaten up?"

"I ran into a door."

Crim gave her a scowl.

"I did."

"If you're going to lie, at least don't make it sound like a callback to all those domestic abuse videos you see in Health."

He shook out the strange anger rolling in his stomach and held out a hand, doing his best to look her over for any other injuries. Her eye wasn't the only thing black and blue "Pull up a chair and sit next to me. I'd like the company."

She hesitated, something weirdly wary about her stance.

"Please? If you're not planning on sleeping, of course, and I doubt you are."

There was another beat before she pulled a chair from the wall and sat beside him, folding her hands in her lap, her posture still guarded. Why had she regressed back to this? "How is Patch? What happened?"

"They don't know." He looked down at his brother, trying to swallow again and giving Patch's hand a gentle squeeze. His worry about Elf was still secondary to his worry for his brother. "Sharp found him delirious and alone in our room. They don't know if he had a bug or if a witch cast a spell or what."

"Hm." Elf leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes. "It seems that the gods really have a grudge against us."

"Yeah, I guess." Crim sighed softly, glancing over at Elf. "You should trance."

"I'd prefer to stay awake."

"You look exhausted. Listen, you don't need to go back to the girl's dorm—Nature always lets kids crash here, and it's obvious we weren't up to anything—and elves don't really need beds in the first place."

He tried to keep from saying his real reasons: he wanted her to be okay, but he couldn't stand being alone with his unconscious brother again.

"I'm not tired."

"Yes you are."

Crim fiddled with the hem of his shirt, unsure about how to handle talking to his crush so frankly. He just tried to pretend he didn't like her like that. It made things easier.

"I'll be right here, okay? I think it'll be healthy for you to get a little sleep."

She looked at him, arching an eyebrow.

"Please?"

"…" She let out an exasperated sigh, crossing her legs. "Fine."

* * *

Fire. Shrieks. Magic was flying everywhere, but they were upon the city like an impenetrable wall of locusts, their fire makers in hand. They threw metal into the air, the contraptions spewing out that noxious gas that had wiped out entire towns of people.

"_Crap!_ Where did they come from?"

Vaarsuvius ignored the raven's outburst and quickly pulled gloves and a mask from the inside of an uncomfortably thick and leathery jacket. "Blackwing!"

"!"

The raven rocketed to the wizard's chest, allowing Vaarsuvius to zip him up, quickly flicking up a dense leather collar and clumsily putting on the heavy mask, washing the wizard's sight in yellow. All the heavy protective gear made the elf feel like being buried alive, but being buried alive was probably better than being burned alive.

The gas started rolling closer, enveloping less prepared denizens. Vaarsuvius bit a chapped lip hard to keep the bile down at the sight of the burning elves. The wizard pulled on the gloves.

_"Just do something! I know you're there, I can hear you breathing!"_

_"Can't you do anything? You're supposed to be the hero here!"_

_"Just help us, please!"_

_"Twelve Gods… there are so many of them…"_

Vaarsuvius took a deep breath and blinked the visions away with a practiced gesture, concentrating on Blackwing's frantic scratches against the elf's comparatively less protected chest. "V! V, _run!_"

Vaarsuvius was useless to these people now. They had been warned. Now, even if the wizard took the gloves off and tried to save them, all Vaarsuvius would have to show for it would be scarred, mutilated hands and the same number of casualties.

The elf turned heel and ran, sprinting through the streets. But if the wizard managed to get someplace without the gas, a place where magic could actually be used…

"OHSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT—"

Vaarsuvius turned a little to see the shrieking elves about a block away, then violet eyes drifted down to the reason for their sudden outbursts. A small green egg on the ground.

The elf only had time to turn away again before fire enveloped everything.

After the boom, all that could be heard was a high-pitched ringing.

Only the scratching on the tiny chest was real. There was no sound. The right side of the elf's face felt wet and it was nearly impossible to see through the mask anymore.

The only thing visible was the tall woman standing on the cracked street in front of the elf. Completely unprotected, but unaffected by the gas rolling closer and closer. Black robes hung on her shoulders, black hair partially obscured her face, but the worst things to look at were her eyes—completely and utterly black. No whites and no irises: just solid black.

Vaarsuvius wasn't sure how many fingers or even hands there were left. The wizard took a moment, then worked the muscles meant to correspond with the shoulder and the elbow.

A metal zipper pressed against a thumb. After a fumble, a ring finger pressed against the other side and pulled downwards.

"Vaarsuvius…"

For some reason, even past the unbearable silence and the mask that should still be sticking to the elf's ear, the woman was perfectly audible.

The complete or incomplete hand curled around the raven's slippery body, then threw him violently out.

Blackwing rolled into view, slick elven blood rubbed on his feathers, and he straightened out, opening his beak in what was probably a squawk.

"We made a deal."

Vaarsuvius's eyes wanted to close so much. The weight was heavy, and not even images of loved ones, Octavius, Terentius, Redcloak, Inkyrius, Blackwing, were keeping them open.

The elf drew breath for one last word.

"_Go._"

The wizard hoped Blackwing had heard.

"I won't let you escape."

Vaarsuvius's eyes closed.

* * *

A/N: I spent a lot of time actually writing this chapter, so I didn't have the patience to give it more than a couple revamps. With any luck, the first scene had enough fluff to alleviate some of the darkness in the rest of the story.


	12. They'll Cry in their Sleep Anyway

She was aware of dropping on cold ground and the leather robe being roughly torn away, rubbing angrily against raw skin. Violet eyes blinked open with a soft groan, throbbing pain running up and down a pale arm, face, and hip.

"N°139 of the Summerwick conquer."

Summerwick? Yes. The attack on Summerwick. Had the entire city been destroyed?

A needle jammed in one pointy ear, provoking a sudden shriek of pain.

"Female high elf with purple eyes and hair, no apparent illnesses, genetic or otherwise, and demonstrates a healthy response to pain while being tagged."

Vision, blurred by drugs and pain, slowly sharpened, and eyes darted around to see what was happening. Endorphins numbed the blinding agony in the ear, leaving it to be somewhat tolerable.

"Demonstrates resistance to the laughing gas. Should be used as a primary breeder for the secondary technicians or soldiers, or cut out of the gene pool to avoid the enemy trying to use it to their advantage?"

The room was made of metal. Smooth gray walls, ceiling, and floor made it feel like they were trapped in a cube, and the only variation to it was a bolted gray door. Two people were in there, one standing above the elf and one sitting down in the corner, writing down everything that was said on a simple brown clipboard.

Vaarsuvius realized that she didn't have anything on.

Pale arms crossed over a small chest and legs came together immediately, consciousness snapping to. "Don't you _dare_ gawk at me! Return my clothes!"

"N°139 regained power of speech and rudimentary reasoning within two minutes of waking." The person bent down, uncaring of the elf's nudity and feeling a pale bicep. "Lacks muscle tone, but is presumably a spell caster, judging from the confiscated spell book."

"Unhand me!"

The elf jerked the arm from the man, slapping his hand away, glaring fiercely.

There was a moment of silence. The examiner looked up, mismatched blue eyes boring into the elf.

It felt like his youthful face was patchwork, but that was only an impression. Once vision focused on it, it was just as together as any other face, save for the slightly different shades of blue in each eye and the strangely varying shades of brown in his hair, auburn on one end and nearly blond on the other.

Most unnerving was how young he looked. He looked like a fourteen-year-old human boy, but Vaarsuvius knew well enough that that wasn't what he was.

"N°139 will need to be assigned as a slave before it is used as a breeder. I insert the suggestion of Architect Dolly Dyel. Schedule an appointment in a month to see if it is sufficiently broken in."

"_Breeder?_" Vaarsuvius, still covering small breasts with an arm, smacked the man across the face, causing him to recoil in surprise. "If you _dare_ try to turn me into one of your incubators, I _will_ force myself to miscarry and make sure whosoever fathered the abomination will _never_ be able to do something of the sort again!"

The man scowled in mild irritation, touching the pink handprint on his cheek. "Make that appointment in _two_ months. And give it a sedative."

"Don't touch me!"

The younger person in the corner, looking to be about nine or ten, glanced up studiously, putting down her clipboard and taking out a needle.

"Don't _touch_ me!"

The examiner knelt down and grasped the elf's shoulders, forcing the flailing wizard down with strength that Vaarsuvius only remembered feeling in high-level fighters' hands. It wasn't even a contest.

The assistant knelt down and jammed the needle into her arm.

* * *

Elf woke with a start.

"What do you want from them? What could that boy _possibly_ have had that was worth hurting him so much?"

"You act like I had something to do with it."

Elf frowned before rubbing her eye, looking over to the side to see Crim asleep with his head on his brother's bed and Patch as unresponsive as ever. Not even the blush of dawn was gracing the sky, so it must have been late.

"Of course you had something to do with it. Absolutely _everything_ comes back down to you."

The teenager crept from her seat, curiously going to the door and peeking through the keyhole.

"Don't get self-righteous. You're hardly in any position to be."

Nature sat at the desk while a disturbingly familiar black-haired woman sat on top of it, looking down with her face hidden. A large snake curled around the mystery woman's arm, hissing softly towards the teacher, the only green against solid black robes.

_"Why do you think we're doing this yet again? You should just let them _be_."_

"He might have brain damage! Do you have any idea what you have _DONE?_ You're a _monster!_"

Nature's face was colored red and her eyes were on fire, but the other woman didn't respond in kind. She only let out a long, low chuckle and made Elf's bones rattle.

"How soon mortals forget. You'd think with their short lives, they would notice their own hypocrisy."

There was a change in the world's tone.

The temperature dropped at least ten degrees. Fog rolled in outside. In the distance, dogs started to bark rabidly.

"He's a goblin, isn't he?"

Nature burst from her seat, puffing out her chest. "That is no excuse to—"

"Oh please. You haven't remembered everything, but you've certainly remembered _that._"

The dogs' barking got more furious and the snake drew back, as if ready to bite.

"Goblins are Evil, aren't they? Mindless drones, free for young adventurers like yourself to skewer and slice through, free for hot-headed warriors to ransack and impregnate with children they'd never dream of paying mind to, free to eradicate like the primitive cockroaches they are."

Elf started feeling sick, pressing her forehead against the door as she watched, unable to tear her horrified gaze away.

Color drained from Nature's face as she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.

"That's what they are. Cannon fodder. Incapable of love, joy, fear, anger, grief, pain… or maybe…"

The black-haired woman pushed off of the desk, shadow obscuring her face, and pale arms crossed over her swollen chest. "Or maybe that's just a lie you told yourselves."

Nature swallowed hard, eyes wide. "Th… that's…"

"Maybe they're just another species. Maybe they have a different culture, but they are still remarkably close to any human or elf, only with green skin and tusks. Maybe, each time you struck one down while laughing and competing with your comrades, you were devastating siblings, children, parents, who may or may not have been able to survive without that one young one who could still work to help them survive in the harsh environment they were forced to live in. Forced to live in by elves, humans, dwarves, and all other Good humanoids."

"I… the gods, they…"

Another bone-rattling chuckle accompanied by a chilling hiss from the snake. "Of course you can blame the gods. They were the ones to designate them as the Evil race, weren't they? The ones who removed any consequences for _you_ if you were to rape, pillage, and kill their people. Who can be expected to keep from murdering others if there aren't any consequences?"

"No, it… I didn't…"

"Oh, but you don't follow any gods, do you? If I recall, you once told me that you never trusted them." The black-haired woman reached out, very gently stroking Nature's face with the back of her finger, and the temperature dropped again, making Elf shiver and her breath come out in a cloud. "So, you really can't use them as an excuse, can you? It was only their say that convinced you that it was okay to commit genocide. You never made an attempt to find out for yourself—you didn't visit any goblin villages or speak with bugbear druids or take a walk with an orc—and you accepted what these so-called untrustworthy gods said without question, when you doubted and railed against something as simple as their taking away your leader's ability to fear."

The hand gently ran through the elf's blond hair, loving as a mother's, and even Elf could see eyes gleam from under the shadow.

"Maybe you didn't question them because it was convenient for them to be right. Maybe in your own greed for strength and power, you decided to overlook the glaring atrocities you were committing. Maybe, for all your talk of caring about all living things, of your compassion, you smiled while you ruthlessly murdered hundreds of innocent people simply because their skin was a different color.

Her voice became a whisper.

"Maybe you were wrong."

The black-haired woman pulled her hand away.

Tears started to leak from the teacher's eyes.

"I suggest dwelling on that, then asking yourself who the real monster is."

Nature bowed her head, then started to cry softly.

The black-haired woman looked towards the door Elf was looking through. "Come out, Vaarsuvius."

The door opened without anyone touching it, leaving Elf exposed, and she suddenly found that she was frozen in place.

The black-haired woman turned to look at her, finally revealing her face.

"_I told you! I told you to let her be!_Look at what you're doing to her!_"_

She was the same ethnicity as Sharp or one of the monitors. Elf knew she had seen her before, but there was something terrifyingly wrong.

Her eyes didn't have whites or irises. They were solid black.

"You look so frightened."

She knelt down, touching Elf's face. Her hand was icy, making the teenager's shivers intensify.

"My darling child…"

She cupped the elf's pale face, making their eyes meet, caressing her cheek with that frozen hand. The snake slithered onto the woman's shoulder, head coming forward, rubbing against the younger girl's face with petrifying fangs disturbingly close to her eyes.

"Everything I do, I do for a reason. I'm not one of the Olympians. I'm not so absorbed in vanity that I ruin lives for slights." Her thumb ran along Elf's lips, those horrifying eyes keeping her locked in place. It felt like frost was forming on her mouth. "I'm only doing what you asked me to. You have more at stake than you know."

She looked down, taking Elf's sleeve and rolling it up, revealing her bandages, and pulled them off to see the stitches. "You never answered my question about your arm, but I guess you were distracted. It looks like that's not your only injury now."

The woman touched the stitches, grasping the thread and pulling it out. Elf shuddered in pain, unable to make a sound, and as the stitches came undone, they only left scarred skin.

"Lirian, I suggest checking all these bruises and cuts in the morning. It looks like someone has been abusing their power."

There was only soft sobbing.

"Goodbye for now, Vaarsuvius. If nothing else, at least you and your lover have a moment of innocence to enjoy before reality returns."

The woman gave a small smile, then the blackness in her eyes faded, leaving only normal human eyes, and the barking outside ceased.

The snake disappeared, leaving behind nothing to indicate it was ever there.

The normal-eyed woman paused, blinking, and Elf was released from whatever spell that kept her still.

The teenager slumped in place. The woman wrapped her warm arms around her, hugging her close to her chest. "I wish She wasn't so cruel."

Elf felt so tired. She didn't even care that she was in the embrace of a witch.

"Who are you?"

The mystery woman looked up at Nature, but the teacher wasn't looking at her. Her face was hidden by her hair and her voice trembled gently. "I've seen you before. I don't know where. You've never told me your name."

"…" The mystery woman ran a hand through Elf's hair, looking down at the worn teenager and sighing, lightly touching the dark color around the girl's eye. "It was in another life, Lirian. A life that made me happy, but a life that's over now. Names mean nothing when you belong to Her."

She pressed her lips gently on Elf's temple. "But you don't belong to Her yet. Enjoy it as long as you can."

Warmth rippled from the site of her kiss, wrapping the teen's brain in cushions.

"Have a good memory."

She fell into a trance.

* * *

"I love you."

"You've said that eight times now."

He looked down at her, making circles with his thumb on the base of her neck, and smiled. "Do you want me to stop?"

"Now don't threaten me." She curled the hair on his chest around her finger, smiling, and placed a gentle kiss on his collarbone. "I was simply stating a fact, my love."

He gave a low chuckle that vibrated his body against hers. "Well, I figure that's what one's supposed to do on one's wedding night."

"I suppose it is our wedding night, isn't it?" She looked down at her finger, smiling a little at the modest silver ring. If one had asked her a mere two years before if she would ever consider a relationship with a goblin, she would have scoffed and be disgusted. She was certain the inverse was true as well for the man she lay besides. She also was certain that almost everyone around them had a similar reaction to their relationship.

She found that she didn't care at all. "Then I suppose I should call you 'husband'."

"I like 'love' better." He tilted her chin up with a finger and kissed her softly. "I'm just glad there's something…"

"Concrete?"

"Yeah." His hand went to her shoulder, stroking it with the same worshipful touch he had used the first time they had made love. "I'm glad there's something concrete to hold us together. This war… I know I get irritable with you sometimes, but I—"

She pressed a finger against his lips, a smile flickering over her face. "I understand, Red. You're under a lot of stress, especially now that you're expected to lead all the goblinoid people under these trying times. And elven gods know, you're not the only one to get short-tempered. You're much more forgiving of my irrational outbursts than most would be."

He looked like he would speak again, then sighed, giving her a smile. "Thanks for understanding, V. I might be cold sometimes, but I really don't know what I'd do without you."

"And neither do I." She smirked, kissing the corner of his lips. "Know what you would do without me, I mean."

"Ha ha." He smiled playfully, nipping the tip of her ear and provoking a spasm, followed by squirming.

"Red!"

"You asked for that one."

The elf looked up at him, trying and failing to scowl, and propped herself up on her hands. "Well, if you're going to start getting frisky, you had better be ready for it to escalate."

He gave a chuckle, grinning. "I like where this is going."

"I'll take that as an invitation." She smiled, leaning down and kissing him.

"Mmm."

For once, they weren't haunted by what may or may not have been true. They didn't feel the constant doubt that held them captive so often. Each knew that the other was real.

That was all they needed.

* * *

"_Hush, hush, time to be sleeping__  
__Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping__  
__Dreams of peace and of freedom__  
__So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…_"

The fog settled on the ground, dousing the world in wet chill. Frost decorated the infirmary windows and the grass, making tiny webs on the petals of the smallest flowers as everything save for the owl hooting softly into the night lay down in sleep.

"_Once our valleys were ringing__  
__With songs of our children singing__  
__But now sheep bleat till the evening__  
__And shielings lie empty and broken._"

The door creaked open, allowing the billowing mist into the nurse's office. An elf with hair the color of gold lay at the desk with her head down in her arms, her back expanding and contracting with a steady rhythm, broken only by an occasional tremble.

The wind blew her hair back, caressing her face, and the trembling ceased.

"_Hush, hush, time to be sleeping__  
__Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping__  
__Dreams of peace and of freedom__  
__So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…_"

The door leading to the backroom swung open slowly, air saturated with dreams and forgotten memories rippling gently, spinning like motes until they settled, just a few more ghostly will-o'-wisps for the mortals to leave behind in the morning.

"_We stood with heads bowed in prayer__  
While fighters laid our cottages bare  
The flames licked the clear mountain air  
And many were dead by the morning._"

Three youths were in the room, two sitting up with blankets wrapped around them, their heads leaning against each other, and the last lay quietly in the bed, silence reflecting nothing of the turmoil inside.

"_Hush, hush, time to be sleeping__  
__Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping__  
__Dreams of peace and of freedom__  
__So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…_"

Memories, growing from the land with the grass, trees, and flowers, floated up, giving life to shades, replaying scenes of fear, despair, and war, telling both the slave's and the master's stories without bias, and ghostly imprints performed their parts, unaware that they would fade with the fog in the morning.

"_Where is our proud highland mettle?__  
__Our troops once so fierce in battle__  
__Now stand, cowed, huddled like cattle__  
__And wait to be shipped o'er the ocean._"

The mist blew in, rolling like plumes of blue smoke, and formed the outline of a chair beside the bed. Outside, across the school, troubled workers, fuming women, and fervent students fell asleep, regaled by the dreams that, unknown to them, had taken life on their grounds, dancing delicately, uncaring of the horror or beauty of their images and uncaring that they would be forgotten again at dawn.

"_Hush, hush, time to be sleeping__  
__Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping__  
__Dreams of peace and of freedom__  
__So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…_"

The mist came together, creating an amorphous being on top of the chair.

Arms of lacy fog and bittersweet dreams reached out, pulling a broken tapestry of light from the wounded green youth's head, stretching it out, undoing the knots that held it together, and starting to reweave it.

"_No use pleading or praying__  
__For gone, gone is all hope of staying__  
__Hush, hush, the anchor's a-weighing__  
__Don't cry in your sleep, bonny baby_…

"_Hush, hush, time to be sleeping__  
__Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping__  
__Dreams of peace and of freedom__  
__So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…_

"_Don't cry in your sleep, bonny baby…_"

* * *

A/N: I didn't spend a lot of time editing this, mainly because I've hit a bit of a dry spell and I was happy that I got another chapter out this fast. It included the introduction of an important song, an important individual, a few more hints of the real conflict outside of the Order, and it colors some very important characters a little more, and I (hope I) managed to do it in a graceful manner. That was all I really asked of it.

The song has a bunch of different names, among them being Hush Hush, Smile in your Sleep, and Don't Cry in your Sleep, but the fact remains that the lyrics were written by Jim McLean to the tune of Mist Covered Mountains.


	13. Well, They Still Had Their Pants On

"Hey."

Poke.

"Wake up, you're going to be late. And you have explaining to do."

Crim snapped awake, the motion jostling the elf on his shoulder, and blearily looked around to see what was going on.

Patch smirked, looking pointedly towards Elf. "Hm. A day goes by and you're already sleeping together. I'm proud of you, Big Brother."

That woke Crim up.

"Little Brother! Shut up!"

Patch dodged his red-faced brother's whack, chortling cheerfully, and Elf shook herself awake, blinking slowly. "Hmm? What's happening?"

"I'm remembering why I enjoyed having him unconscious."

"Yeah, about that, why are we in the infirmary?"

Elf glanced from the scowling Crim, who was struggling to stay angry despite the obvious relief that was overcoming him, to the smug-looking Patch, then shrugged, keeping her head ducked slightly so her face was partially obscured by shadow. "We were hoping you could tell us. You were sick and needed to be taken to the nurse."

"Well I don't have the slightest idea. I just remember trying to find a way to lie down without it hurting."

Crim softened a little, unable to stay angry in the face of worry. "Besides that, how are you feeling?"

"Well, my legs and lashes still hurt like hell, but that was happening before I woke up here, and I have a terrible headache." Patch shrugged, giving a mollifying smile to his brother. "Whatever happened, I'm fine now."

Crim's expression rippled, his hands shaking slightly in his lap, and swallowed, closing his eye briefly. "That's… good."

He leaned forward and patted his brother's shoulder. "Good, Little Brother. Don't do that again."

Patch's smile faltered for a moment. "Jeeze, Big Brother. I wasn't dying, was I?"

"Of course not." Crim glanced over at Elf, clearing his throat and awkwardly fiddling with the hem of his cloak. "We should go to class. I'll be back after to see how you're doing, okay?"

Patch nodded, his smile fading in the face of his brother's concern, and glanced up at the door. "You should hurry, though. Nature says school starts in ten minutes."

Both the elf and goblin stiffened in their seats, then Elf zipped out, Crim pausing at the door.

"Seriously, don't scare me like that again. Feel better."

And then Crim was gone.

* * *

"Wake up."

A ruler came out of nowhere and landed on his head.

"Ow!"

Crim jerked back in his chair, nearly falling over, much to the amusement of his giggling classmates.

Serpent arched an eyebrow, waving his ruler in the goblin's face threateningly, or it would be threatening if there weren't an undercurrent of amusement in his eyes. "If you're going to sleep in class, kid, learn to do it with your eye open. But I gotta give you credit—at least you don't snore."

His ruler came down on a certain snoring classmate right next to Crim, waking Blondie up with a surprised yowl and provoking another wave of laughter from the class.

"Subtlety, kids, subtlety! If you don't learn history here, then at least learn how to slip one by authority figures."

Coal glanced behind him at the sheepish Crim and the confused Blondie, at least trying to hide his amused smile, and arched a curious eyebrow towards the goblin. Crim shrugged, doing his best to communicate that it was an off day for him, and leaned forward on his desk again. Blondie just looked around, rubbing his eyes as though he had never seen the room before.

Serpent rolled bright green eyes, resting the ruler on his shoulder lightly, ready to whip down again, and walked to the front of the classroom. His hair, even more vivid red than Red's, gleamed like fire in the light that shined through the recently-cleaned windows, making his face seem that much more alive. "Anyway, where was I?"

Coal turned back around to face the chalkboard. "Antoinette, I think?"

"Oh yeah, that woman. Here's a tip, kids—if you find yourself in a position where you're leading a very hungry populace, don't rub the fact you're privileged in their face."

Crim rubbed his temples, trying to orient himself, when someone poked his shoulder blade.

He turned around to see who it was. Red, sitting on her knees on her seat, held out a folded piece of paper, frowning a little. Crim took it and turned to sit properly in his chair again, unwrapping it.

_How's Patch?_

Crim nodded to himself, then took out a pen, trying to quietly (_subtly_) write out his response.

_He has no idea what happened, but he's a lot better._

He refolded it and handed it backwards.

Serpent looked up, making quiet eye contact before tapping his ruler to his shoulder and continuing with his lecture on Antoinette. He'd seen. He was making an exception.

Crim sighed softly in relief.

Well, at least he liked one of the teachers here.

* * *

Elf was hiding in the library.

Well, she'd like to think of it as studying rather than hiding.

Elf curled up deep in a nook between a bookcase and the wall. Books were laid out in front of her, each open to a different page. She faithfully alternated between reading each of them, unable to pay attention to one for long and unwilling to stop reading and think about the strange trances she had been having, her feelings for a certain goblin, and least of all, of the vicious beat down she had received the day before.

She unconsciously stroked the scarred insides of her wrists, shuddering as the pads of her fingers passed over each ridge in her skin.

Reading. Reading would make it go away.

She alternated between tales, reading about whales and pirates and children that would never grow up in quick succession, biting her lip to keep from stopping. She had the last period of the day off, and she had no engagements to attend to before in-dorms thanks to a medical excusal. She could stay here all day, away from the world.

All the makeup caked on her face to hide the cuts and bruises felt like it was a giant mask. She hated the feeling, but she couldn't stand the idea of being seen with all those wounds. She had been lucky that Crim and Patch had been too distracted to notice them this morning when the lighting was good.

And she was also lucky that the dress code called for long skirts and long sleeves. Otherwise, they would probably see the bruises peppering the rest of her flesh.

It hurt to move.

"I thought I'd find you here."

She jumped with a surprised yelp, nearly giving herself whiplash when she turned her head to see who had approached.

"Whoa, didn't mean to scare you."

Crim held out his hands sheepishly, sitting down outside of her ring of books. "I just wanted to thank you."

Only bound paper separated them. His closeness made the tips of her ears begin to go red, but she withdrew, the jeering words of their schoolmates ringing in her mind.

"For what?"

"Staying with me."

His cheeks became a little pink and he looked down, fiddling with the hem of his cloak. "It meant a lot."

She looked away, trying to quiet down the voices in her head. "It was no trouble."

"But it was still important." He fell silent, and for a moment, Elf thought he had left.

She felt his finger on her face, touching a hidden bruise, rubbing the skin lightly, and she recoiled with a hiss of pain.

"Your concealer was smudged."

She looked at him, glaring when she saw the look of concern on his face. He leaned forward a little, placing his hands on the ground to prop himself up. She didn't want him to look at her like that. It made it feel like he cared, and it was so hard to believe that after the things said yesterday… "Seriously, who did this to you? You can tell me."

"It's nothing." She self-consciously pulled her hood over her head, keeping her face in shadow.

"It's not nothing."

He tentatively touched her shoulder, peering through the shadow at her face. "You helped me out. I'll help you. Just tell me."

"It's nothing that doesn't happen everyday. You can't help."

His breath was brushing against her throat. She stifled a shiver, the tips of her ears beginning to burn. She really wanted him to touch her, but the echoes of the children's words kept bouncing in her head. "So was it a teacher? Feelgood?"

She was very quiet.

"Elf, I promise I won't think anything bad about you."

The teenager considered for a moment, fingering the collar of her shirt. "She victimized me during the rap. I spat at her face in retaliation. She had all the students assault me at once."

His eyebrows shot up.

"I provoked her. Go ahead. Call me a fool."

He blinked.

She turned a little, scowling in irritation, and crossed her arms. "Are you going to or not?"

"…" A smile spread across his face. "You're the most amazing girl I've ever met."

She stiffened and a blush flared across her face, mirrored in the goblin's complexion, but he quickly kept talking. "I mean, you _spat_ at her! Do you have any idea how many kids wanted to do something like that? It's crazy but it was totally amazing!"

Her eyebrows went up a little.

"Why are you hiding in here? I bet they think you're a hero!" He clutched her hands, making her blush harder, and his eye sparkled. "Just say the word—I bet half the school will go after the one who bruised you."

"I… you think I'm…?"

"Absolutely amazing!"

He caught himself, the blush burning his cheeks, and he looked down, fiddling with the seam of his robe, waiting for a response. When there wasn't one after a few moments, his ears drooped a little in embarrassment and he let go of her hand. "It's the truth."

Elf didn't really know what she was doing until she did it.

She leaned toward him, cupping one cheek in a hand and kissing the other, the echoes in her head getting quieter.

"Thank you."

He stiffened, and if it was possible, his blush deepened. "I, uh, um…" He touched the spot where she had kissed him. "Uh, no problem."

Elf smiled but pulled away, wondering whether or not she should have done that.

"You know," she blurted out, "we never went on our outing yesterday."

He looked back at her, pulling his ear subconsciously. "Oh! Um, sorry?"

"We should try again tonight, provided there are no more family emergencies." She placed her hands firmly on the ground, trying to avoid indulging in some nervous knuckle-biting. "Do you like that idea?"

He blinked, quickly nodding his head. "Y-yeah! Yeah, I do!"

Elf smiled, summoning up all her audacity. "Good. And one last thing you have forgotten…"

She cupped his cheek again, turning his head and gently pressing their lips together for one brief moment. "You forgot to share a goodnight kiss with me."

Elf pulled away, picking up her bag quickly. "Farewell, until tonight."

Just like that, she was gone.

* * *

Elf lay back in bed, staring at the clock fixed on the wall. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. It went so slowly—hardly three hours had passed. It was only six.

She sighed, rolling so she was facing the wall. She had already spent the last few hours finishing her homework and fretting over the consequences of her boldness, so there was little else to do, except…

She frowned, sitting up in bed. She could start the little experiment that had been brewing in her head during the day. Just a little thing, hardly any effort. Quiet. Safe.

The teenager couldn't help but be scared of trying.

Elf clenched her teeth, shaking off the childish fear and looked under the bed from on top, taking out a blank notebook and placing it on her lap before relaxing.

Her mind resisted the procedure for a moment. A song hung in her head, just out of reach. Hush, hush, time to… do something. She didn't know. It was pointless to think about anyway—just her mind's attempt to distract her from conducting the experiment.

She loosened it up and forced herself to trance.

_"Well, let's get this over with. How bad is it?" _

_Tsukiko, her permanent sour scowl in place, crossed her legs from her seat on top of the table, watching the assorted exhausted adventurers and leaders who stood and sat in a loose circle around a window overlooking the stars. _

_The goblin was leaning against the wall, rubbing his temple and keeping his eye closed, the dark-skinned human was sitting backwards on a chair, resting his forehead against the backrest, the rogue sat on the ground, trying to stay awake, the dwarf sat on a chair next to her, and the blond human and halfling were curled up asleep on the floor. _

_The elf absently stroked her familiar's head, leaning against the wall besides her leader. _

_"At least a quarter of the goblin population defected to the enemy, despite the Dark One's best efforts to keep us together," the goblin said, breaking the silence. "The remainder is growing disgruntled and shaky. Solidarity is a big part of our culture, and the war hasn't made us forget how we have been treated. I don't know how long I can keep them fighting for our world." _

_His expression was dark, much more going on in there than most of the others knew. The elf bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted to hold him and give him a kiss, but she knew well enough that she couldn't in present company. _

_"Do the goblins really think that the enemy will give them equal treatment?" the dark-skinned human asked, his eyes going up to look at the goblin. _

_He shrugged, keeping his gaze on the window. "We don't know. We only know that we'll never have equal treatment here. That makes a lot of goblins' loyalty to this world shaky at best."_

_The dark-skinned human sat up a little so his chin wasn't resting on the back of the chair. _

_"How steadfast is _your_ loyalty, Redcloak?" _

_The goblin turned his head a little so his only gold eye was fixed on the dark-skinned human. "I'm loyal to the Dark One."_

_The rogue grimaced distrustfully, but the dark-skinned human only nodded. "We can't ask for more." He looked down again, his exhaustion evident in his posture. "No one has been able to figure out what their weapons are or how to heal the injuries from them. There's a huge shortage of clerics to do anything, and even then…"_

_"There be nothin' we c'n do. Nothin' worth notin', least." The dwarf had a strange expression, ill-tempered and frustrated, as he stared at the window. "Th' gods 're t' busy t' give us th' power we need." _

_"Yeah." The dark-skinned human looked at the dwarf, looking like he wanted to say something, but he turned his face away again. "And we're told that those prison things are exactly what we thought: breeding camps." _

_The goblin was quiet._

_"We don't know what they're using them for, but they're cranking out bodies a lot faster this way. I tried to stop them, but most of the human kingdoms are imitating them. Breeding camps are springing up on both sides." The dark-skinned human rubbed his forehead. "And the enemy secured a good two thirds of the northern continent in the last few battles." _

_There was a long silence. _

_"Is there anything else we know? Otherwise, I need to start working on our next strategy. Soldiers can't fight in those heavy leather coats—we need to find another way to protect against the gas. Preferably a way that protects against the lead and explosions, too." _

_The elf repressed a deep frown at the goblin's tone. He seemed so tired and worn down. _

_"That's all they told us." The human looked out the window. "There's nothing else to say."_

_The goblin nodded and was gone. No one else followed, preferring to keep staring at the window, lost in their own thoughts._

_The elf did her best to keep her concern from showing on her face._

_"I must continue to look into possible solutions. Goodnight, as I doubt that we shall see each other again until the morning." _

_No one responded as she left the room. _

_"I'll go and find some birdseed. Give you guys some time alone." _

_She nodded in thanks as her familiar swooped off her shoulder down the hall. She went in a different direction, navigating the cold stone corridors until she came to the goblin's study._

_She pushed the door open. _

_The goblin was sitting at a desk, hunched over it, one lone candle keeping the room lit. Papers and books were piled on, spread out in front of him like some sick jigsaw puzzle._

_"Not now, Vaarsuvius. I'm working." _

_She brushed off his cold tone, instead walking up to his chair and resting her hands on his shoulders. "You have worked on this for twenty-eight straight hours, sans the meeting we just had. You're going to run yourself into the ground." _

_"Says the woman who didn't sleep for two days so she could figure out what that gas was."_

_She tilted her head downward, her breath tickling the top of his head. "I shall trance if you are sleeping by me." _

_"Not now, seriously. I can't be distracted." He didn't even look at her, preferring to tap the eraser of his pencil against a chart, unable to pay it any attention. _

_She moved her fingers, pressing them in until she was kneading the muscle underneath. She concentrated on the variations under his skin, the hard and the soft spots, the former far outweighing the latter. The tension wound him tight, but she patiently worked the knots out._

_"Vaarsuvius, I… you should… I can't…" he slowly relaxed, letting his pencil rest on the desk. "Stop distracting me. I can never pay attention to work when you're like this."_

_"When I am acting like your wife instead of your colleague?"_

_He didn't respond. Instead, he dropped the pencil and rubbed his temple, a low purr rumbling in his chest in response to the kneading._

_"I don't like hiding our relationship. I am not ashamed of you, my love."_

_"I'm not ashamed of you either, V," he said quickly, resting his hand on the desk and leaning forward with a soft groan, surrendering to the touches for a moment. "It's just easier for us both if we do, at least for now. News of me having an elven wife would split the goblins' loyalties apart, and news of you having a goblin husband would have you thrown to the dogs." He pulled out a different piece of paper full of diagrams and calculations, spreading it out and tensing up his back, trying to ignore the kneads. "I need to work."_

_"Do not give me that, Red. I know when you're distressed."_

_He paused._

_She finished rubbing his back, slipping forward so that he could look at her and draping an arm across his shoulders. "It's not your fault that this happened. You did your best to keep the goblins together, but not even the gods themselves would be able to." _

_He hesitated, staring at the ring around his finger, then shook his head. "They're my responsibility. I should have…"_

_"The goblin people have been hurt. You of all people know that. When they were offered equal treatment in exchange for defecting… you know you were tempted as well." _

_The goblin was quiet. _

_She leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth. "Come now. Life is not all about the war or your responsibilities. Join me for the night and you shall feel better in the morning." _

_"I…" He rubbed his forehead, blinking a little quickly. "It's… They're all going to…"_

_"My love, you are overwhelming yourself. Know your limits." _

_She kissed him softly, stroking his side gently in a way she knew drove him mad._

_An appreciative growl started in his chest._

_"Red…"_

_She was suddenly up against a wall, her mouth being ravaged by her husband's, something incredibly hungry and desperate to his movements. She stroked his face, feeling the damp stream underneath his eye, and allowed him to press up more fully against her, their heartbeats beating in time to each other. _

_She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close protectively. _You're safe_, she communicated, stroking the back of his neck as she returned his savage kisses. _You're in my arms and you're safe.

_He was shaking slightly, but that didn't stop the bruising passion in his touches. She felt his hand undoing the rope holding her robe together, the other sliding past the bothersome clothes and caressing her body. She had missed him, and now it was obvious that he had missed her at least as much._

_The door creaked open. _

_"V?"_

Elf snapped awake and the trance faded away.

* * *

A/N: Ta-da! New chapter! :D Yay!


	14. People Keep Dropping in on Them

"Okay, spill."

"Hmm?"

Patch wiggled under the covers, sitting up straight and poking Crim's head, forcing him to look up from his homework.

"You've been distracted for hours. Something happened."

Crim averted his eye, rubbing the eraser head of his pencil on his paper. "I haven't been distracted."

"You've been writing out your homework in eraser for ten minutes."

The elder's eyebrows shot up and he looked down at his (blank) page.

"Does it have something to do with Elf?"

Crim immediately started to blush, tapping his pencil on the bed and looking away, mumbling, "We're going to go out tonight."

"Really?" Patch grinned widely, leaning forward with his ears perking to hear better. "That's great! You see? These things can work out if you actually go for them."

His brother ducked his head a little, absently writing down the equation he was supposed to be solving.

"Oh come on. You're supposed to be grinning like an idiot right now." Patch nudged his brother gently, jostling his arm enough to make him give up on trying to write stuff down. "She's cool and you've been pining like a lost puppy. Who knows? Maybe you'll get to… first base."

That was strange. He had been about to say something a little more explicit, but he felt a twinge in his chest, something telling him under no uncertain terms that he could never talk about Elf like that. She was better than that, and he'd sock whoever said otherwise.

Huh. Weird.

"I doubt it, Little Brother," Crim said, cutting into his thoughts and scowling. "Besides, that's not what I'm thinking about."

"Don't lie."

His face got a shade redder. "Okay. It's not what I'm _mostly_ thinking about."

Patch smirked in satisfaction before cocking his head. "Then what _are_ you mostly thinking about?"

"Just…" Crim frowned, unconsciously touching his throat, his claws lightly scraping the thin skin. Something locked away in Patch cringed at the gesture. "Have you ever gotten the feeling that something really bad is going to happen?"

"What, you think you're going to make an idiot of yourself?"

"Well, yeah, but that wasn't what I was talking about." Crim dropped his hand in his lap. "I dunno. We've been having a stream of bad luck lately. It feels like something really bad is coming."

"You're just being paranoid." Patch pushed the homework away. "Just concentrate on her. Make her feel pretty and appreciated. She probably doesn't get to feel that often, what with the androgyny and aggression."

Crim flushed, averting his eye and resting a hand on his knee, mumbling, "I think she's pretty…"

Patch smirked. "Sissy." He lightly punched his brother's shoulder. "That's what I'm talking about. You're lucky—all this romantic stuff comes naturally to you, and I think she's the type to appreciate it, even if it doesn't show. Just do all the sappy stuff you usually do with girls and you're golden."

Crim gave a tentative smile, fiddling with the hem of his robe. "Well, I guess she's already seen my worst."

"You see? Optimism is your friend." Patch's smirk turned into a smile before he playfully punched his brother's shoulder again. "Nothing bad's going to happen. There's not going to be a, I don't know, sudden act of the gods that totally screws all of us over again. And I'm going to drag all the details out of you once you come back."

"Do I look like the type to kiss and tell?"

Patch arched an eyebrow.

"Shut up."

Patch grinned, leaning back again. "When does it start?"

Crim glanced at the clock. "Five minutes. Wish me luck." He got up, brushing himself off.

"You're cut out for corny stuff. You'll do fine."

Crim rolled his eye. "Big talk for a guy who can't leave bed."

"Nope. Big talk for a guy who's got a girl coming over." Patch winked. "Red was worried."

Another rolled eye. "See you."

"She's into you. Things'll go fine."

That provoked a small smile before his big brother was gone.

* * *

Elf was already perched on a waist-high branch when he got to the edge of the thicket, the usual meeting place for students sneaking dates. He thought of how warm that one little kiss had felt, and his heart skipped a beat nervously.

"Hi." He stifled a wince at how lame that must sound, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Good evening."

Elf pushed off of the branch, giving a shameless smile, crossing her arms. He had to wonder if she was nervous at all. "Are you anxious?"

Crim came closer, his ears twitching slightly. "What?"

"Nervous. Are you nervous?"

The blunt way she said it, while it would have shocked him a few weeks ago, barely made him bat an eye. "Yes. Aren't you?"

"Well, did you want to come out with me or not?"

His eyebrows went up. "Y-yeah. That's why I asked."

"Then I have nothing to be nervous about. I came out here because I wanted to do this with you, so you have nothing to be nervous about either. Now that we have that settled, let us get this meeting underway."

She brushed past him, that intoxicating scent of flowers and honey catching him for a moment, giving one of the warmest sensations he'd ever felt in his chest. "Well, that was refreshingly direct."

"The traditional dodging and awkwardness seemed to be a waste of time." Elf turned to look at him, cocking her head. "Shall we go or not?"

He blinked, trying to steel up his nerves the same way she obviously had. "Then can I hold your hand?"

He winced at the tiny squeak he had made at the end, cheeks starting to burn, but Elf didn't laugh like he expected.

Instead, she just wordlessly held out one cream-colored hand.

He took it.

She gave a tentative smile, a sliver of nervousness finally breaking the surface. "You said they had ice cream?"

"Yeah. None of the staff are off yet, so we'll be the only ones there." He tightened his grip a little on her hand. It was so soft and small compared to his. Built for books and the piano. He wondered if she played.

"Then we should go, shouldn't we? Before the time window closes."

He jerked a little in surprise. "Uh, yeah, we should."

Her smile became a little more genuine and she pulled him gently until he started to walk on his own, intertwining their fingers. Crim leaned a little to see her face better, trying to calm down the wild beating in his chest. "Are you feeling okay? You put more concealer on… no one else hit you, did they?"

"Of course not. I simply do not like displaying any bruises." Elf looked up at him. Her eyes looked a little more defined. Was she wearing makeup? "So. Should we be asking each other questions?"

"To tell the truth, I'm a little rusty on dating. I haven't done much of it since my brother and I were put in a reformatory."

"You both seem to have a perfect hold on your senses."

Crim shrugged, tentatively rubbing circles in the back of her hand. "Everyone here does, but I doubt many people really are. You don't go to a reformatory for nothing."

Something occurred to him.

"Wait… is whatever made you come here alright with, you know, this?" He made a gesture between them, swallowing nervously. "Because I don't want to agitate any demons of yours. If you just need to be a friend, I'm—"

"No, it has nothing to do with that. Or I am mostly sure it doesn't." Her smile flickered for a moment and her eyes became distant. "I'm healthy. There's nothing wrong with me."

Crim nodded, now the one leading to the dining hall. "Alright. Just… you know, do what you always do. Speak your mind."

"You're worried."

He averted his eye, biting his tongue. "Well… you know, I just…"

"Don't be."

He looked down at her face. Her eyes. Something about her eyes kept pulling him.

"This is going to be a pleasant night for both of us. Let's leave the worry for tomorrow."

Elf's smile became genuine again. "Talk about good things. Tell me about yourself."

Crim shrugged, the tips of his ears going red. "I don't know what to talk about. I'm a pretty boring person."

"Well, we can discuss how that isn't true over sweets, can't we?"

They looked up at the dining hall, the doors somehow much more imposing in starlight. "Hey, how flexible are you?" the goblin asked, measuring out logistics mentally.

Elf glanced at Crim and arched an eyebrow.

His eyebrows shot up and his cheeks went red. "That's not what I meant!"

A smile broke on her face again and she chuckled softly. "What are you planning? How do we get inside?"

"They don't lock the windows."

Crim pulled her to the side of the building, pointing at a window that was placed a little lower than the others. "I can climb up there and pull you in."

"Are you sure we won't harm ourselves?"

"Yeah. Me and my brother do it a lot."

"Last I checked, you told me your brother has a death wish."

Crim smiled, then jumped up a little, clinging to the wall with his claws and fingers and climbing to the window. "Yeah, but I don't."

He pushed it open, swinging up to the sill and holding out a hand. "Hold on. I'll pull."

Elf arched an eyebrow skeptically.

"Come on. Live a little."

"I'm sorry, am I with the wrong brother?" She smiled again and took his hand. "Last I checked, Crim was the sensible one."

"Sensibility can take a backseat sometimes." He grasped both her hands tightly and tugged her up, having to put hardly any effort in. (Huh. He really needed to get her to eat something. Preferably meat.)

She came to rest beside him, the size of the sill making her sit partially in his lap. "Now how do we get down?"

Crim was a little too aware of how close she was. His cheeks got redder and he privately cursed how easily he blushed.

"Crim?"

"Oh! Um, yeah, the jump's a lot shorter than it looks. It'd probably be easier if you go first."

Elf nodded, swinging her legs over and, after a hesitation, pushing off to the ground.

There was a loud thud.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine. I may have scraped my knee, but otherwise…"

He peered over the edge, watching as Elf picked herself up and brushed her clothes off.

"You should probably move out of the way."

"Yes, of course."

Elf backed away, knocking into a chair by accident before maneuvering past some of the furniture. Crim made sure she was out of the way before he pushed off.

He hit the floor quieter than she had, his fall more practiced. Elf came forward and helped him up, holding his hand for a moment longer than she needed to. "We would get into a lot of trouble if we were to be caught."

"Hey, what's a date without a little risk?"

Another raised eyebrow.

"Crap. Not again. That's not what I meant!"

Elf smiled and chuckled softly. "If I didn't know better, I would make assumptions about where your mind is."

His face went bright red. "I-I, n-no, I mean, I respect you m—"

"Do not be so nervous. I'm only teasing."

Elf hesitated, then tentatively wrapped her arms around his bicep, resting her head on his shoulder. "No need to be tense."

He stiffened, then forced himself to relax, resting his head on hers. "Alright. Who coached you?"

That made her pause, then sigh.

"Red. Was I that obvious?"

"You're not that charismatic, Elf, and definitely not that warm." He hesitantly nuzzled her hair. "You don't need to act. Come on, let's go to the fridge."

Elf's cheeks flushed a little, but she gave a smile as he led her to the empty buffet line, pushing past the small barrier between them and the kitchen.

"What about you? You don't talk about yourself much, Elf."

The girl shrugged, averting her eyes but keeping her embrace of his arm. "There is not much to talk about."

"Sure there is. You're the girl with the guts to stand up to Feelgood. You had to get that spine somewhere."

"I have always had it." Elf looked up at him, her smile taking a slightly mischievous note to it. "I take it that you like it."

"Do you even have to ask?"

Crim smiled and led her past the empty counters of the dark school kitchen, finally getting to the fridge and pulling it open. "What's your favorite flavor?"

"Mint, please."

"I hope you like chocolate chips with that."

There were five different cartons, all with a scooper next to them and a pile of cones. Elf let the boy's arm go and he peeled the top of mint chocolate chip.

"How _did _you and your brother come across this?"

"Little Brother was being an idiot." He smiled, putting two scoops of ice cream on a cone and holding it out. "He wanted to know what the teachers did here after lights out, so he thought it was a good idea to sneak in through a window. I decided to go just to make sure he didn't manage to kill himself along the way."

Elf took the ice cream and licked it gently, and Crim could tell that something in the back of her head was wondering if this was some kind of trick the school had set up.

"Do you like it?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, though it would take an act of the gods to allow me to eat all of it."

Crim chuckled, putting aside the mint scooper. "Better too much than too little when it comes to food."

"Indeed. What are you going to have?"

"I like strawberry, personally." Crim gave himself two scoops on a cone and closed the fridge, smiling. "Little Brother makes fun of it because of the color, but I like it anyway."

Elf chuckled softly. "Of course he would." She tentatively slid her hand into his, intertwining their fingers, and the tips of her ears got red. "Do you want to sit down somewhere?"

Blood rushed to his cheeks. "S-sure. Here."

Crim pulled her out of the kitchen again into the dining hall, going to one of the tables and sitting on top, pulling her up next to him.

"Are we not using chairs as a form of rebellion?"

"Yep."

Elf chuckled, licking the ice cream. "You would think that we have rebelled enough."

"With a school like this, I don't think there is such a thing as enough." Crim tentatively ran a thumb along her finger. "But let's not talk about that. We talk about that enough. Tell me about yourself—you're much more interesting than me."

"I beg to differ." Elf smiled and swung her legs absently over the side of the table. "I don't have much to say. I enjoy my studies, I dislike most frivolous interaction, and I do not have much experience with dating."

"Really? Could have fooled me." Crim nudged her playfully, smiling. "You've been doing great."

"Thank you." Elf nudged him back gently. "I have said a little about myself, and now it is your turn, I believe."

Crim shrugged, nibbling the ice cream. "Like I said, I'm pretty boring. I spend most of my time keeping my brother out of trouble, and the rest of the time I spend on schoolwork. I like learning."

Elf nodded, licking a chocolate chip off the mint. "What do you like learning about?"

"Anything, I guess. I especially like learning about theology and government." Crim looked over her face, noting the tiny smudges where the makeup wasn't rubbed in all the way and having to suppress a frown. In the right light, he could still see the bruises peppering her face, along with a healing cut on her lip. "How do you have such bad luck?"

"Hmm?"

Crim cocked his head, examining her face. "It feels like the gods have it in for you. You have the worst luck." He nudged her playfully, a smile growing on his face. "It's probably the pride thing. The gods hate that."

"Well, I'm hardly going to bend in the face of divine ire." Elf tilted her chin up arrogantly, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I figured." Crim's smile became more genuine. "Would you ev—"

There was a loud clatter. Both of the teenagers jumped in place, their necks snapping to face the source of the noise, their bodies freezing.

"Ouch!"

There was a clatter, then the kitchen light turned on, illuminating a woman with a bowl of chocolate ice cream staggering out, shaking her leg a little. "You'd think I'd be less clumsy after so long."

Crim and Elf were rooted in place, eyes wide, and their hands tight together, the only thing going through their heads being how much trouble they were about to get in.

The woman looked up at them, only just noticing that they were there.

There was a pause.

"Uh oh. Someone caught me cheating on my diet."

The woman pushed the door closed with her foot, cutting off the light.

"Hey, kids. How're you doing?"

Crim cocked his head, looking at the woman more closely.

It was the woman from the orchard. Her black hair was loose and she was wearing a black tank top with black capris, her snake wrapped tight around her arm and lapping up from the ice cream, but it was her. The same familiar gray eyes, the same snake, and the same smile.

"I thought you said you didn't work here."

"Nah, I broke in one of the windows. Ice cream's always worth it." The woman grinned, nodding her head towards the shocked teens. "I won't tell if you won't."

Crim and Elf exchanged glances, then looked back at the woman with confused expressions.

"Oh, right! You guys are doing a project on Morpheus, right?" The woman put her ice cream on a nearby table, holding up one finger and then walking back into the kitchen, coming out a moment later with a bag. "Morpheus isn't a really extroverted kind of god, so I doubt you've found too many books. Well, I have a pretty big personal library, so here you go!"

The woman plopped down two books, one on Elf's lap and the other on Crim's. "Have fun with that, kids! And did I mention you look adorable together? Purple goes with green."

Blood rushed to their faces.

The snake turned himself towards the chocolate ice cream, straining himself to get at the bowl, hissing in protest.

"Yeah, yeah, Rodney, I'm getting it." The woman grabbed the bowl, letting the (quite grateful) snake lap from it. "When you get so fat you can't move, don't come crying to me."

The snake only let out a little hiss and continued to eat.

The woman grinned, winked, and trotted to the door. "Bye, kids!"

Then she was gone.

Elf and Crim stared at the door, then at the books, then at each other.

Crim was the first to start laughing. "What was _that?_"

"A non-sequitur?" Elf started to laugh with him, putting the book given to her inside her robe without looking at it. "I think that is a signal that we should leave. I do not want the next person to catch us to be a member of the faculty."

Crim perked, squeezing her hand and pulling her off the table after putting his book in his own robe. "I know a nice place in the thicket. It doesn't have cameras on it, and there's a really pretty view. I want to show you."

Elf smirked, allowing herself to be pulled to the door. "Is this completely innocent or do you have ulterior motives for taking me there?"

His face became red. "N-no, wait, I d-don't mean to be disre—"

"I am only giving you a hard time. I'd like to see the view." Elf smiled, and this time, she was the one leading him to the thicket. "You're amusing when you're flustered."

Crim relaxed, flashing her a playful glare. "Stop that. I can make you just as embarrassed."

"Oh really? I suppose that is why you have done your best to counteract my teasing all night." Elf nudged Crim gently, though it was hard enough to jostle the hand holding ice cream. "Try to embarrass me."

As they went into the thicket, an idea latched onto his brain, catching a ride on an impulse that he indulged without thinking. "Okay."

Crim grinned, pulling her into a hug, and kissed her softly, making a fist against her lower back. She tensed, the skin against his cheek getting hot, and he pulled away, still smiling.

"Did I get you?"

Her face was bright red. For a moment, he was scared he had gotten her mad.

"Beast." She hit his chest lightly, leaning forward so their noses were rubbing together. "Kissing me was your intent this whole time, wasn't it?"

"Kissing's nice, but I like your company most." He rested his hand on her hip, their breath mixing together. She tasted like mint. He suddenly had a new appreciation for the flavor. "And it's not like you can say you weren't hoping either."

"Maybe not." She smiled, licking a little more of her ice cream before pressing their lips together again. "But the fact you're a beast is not changed by that."

He grinned, nibbling his own ice cream before kissing her, savoring the taste of mint and strawberry. Her lips were so soft, and her tongue darted, inexperienced yet calculated, rubbing against his. It was cold at first, but it became so warm, wet, strong. It felt like his heart had relocated to his eardrums. "I like this."

"As do I." Elf pulled away, her face red and her breathing heavy. Crim finished his ice cream, trying to cool himself down a little, maybe make his heart pound softer. "It's late. I want to do this again. You can show me the view."

"Yeah." He didn't want to, but he pulled away as well, though he didn't let go of her hand. "We're still studying in the library tomorrow, right?"

"Of course." Elf smiled, a hint of shyness to her normally brazen expression. "Do you wish to go out again outside of our schoolwork?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I do." Crim's grin got a little wider and he squeezed her hand. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. I still want to show you that view."

"I shall hold you to it." Elf's cheeks were red, but her eyes were sparkling. "Do you want to say goodnight?"

His heart pounding in his ears, he dipped his head a little and caught her lips one last time. "Goodnight."

Elf finished off her ice cream, walking away in a flurry of flowery scents. "And you were nervous about not knowing what to do. Goodnight, Crim."

And she was gone.

* * *

"Finally! I was starting to get worried."

Red's voice was a whisper, but it still made Elf wince in expectation, freezing for a moment, waiting for Feelgood to suddenly burst in waving around a belt like a bat out of Tartarus, before she continued to pull on her nightgown. The book the groundskeeper had given her lay on the floor, forgotten for the moment and out of the way. "How late is it?"

"Nearly twelve." Red sat up, the moonlight from the window illuminating her grin. "So how far did you go?"

Elf's ears got bright red. "That's hardly your business, isn't it?"

"Maybe not, but I'm still prying. Did you let him take your shirt off?"

Elf glared, smoothing out the nightgown and walking to her bed. "That is not your business."

"Oooh, I bet he _did_." Red giggled softly, lying back on her bed. "Did you let him touch your chest?"

"For the record, we went no further than kissing, though you have no right to know." Elf crawled under her covers. "He was a gentleman."

"Aw, seriously? He's been pining after you for_ever_." Red hugged her pillow. "But it sounds like you had fun, so that's good."

Elf settled in bed, preparing to trance. "I'm tired. We'll talk at another point."

"Fine, fine, you want your privacy." Red smiled. "I'll just ask Patch."

"Of course you will."

Elf ignored the human's chuckles and drifted into a trance, bracing herself.

_"What the hell do you think you're doing?"_

_Vaarsuvius gave up on completely straightening the robe out, settling for a loose knot that left a lot more in the open than the elf was used to, and quickly stepped between the rogue and the goblin, not needing to examine her spouse's expression to recognize that he would be very aggressive soon if the thief wasn't careful._

_"Ms. Starshine, be calm. It's only—"_

_"What the _**hell**_ are you doing to my friend? !"_

_Haley pushed Vaarsuvius to the side gently, squaring her shoulders and clenching her fists, almost a breath away from the goblin, and it looked very much like she was about to whip out a knife on him. "I _knew_ we couldn't trust you!"_

_"What are you… Oh, for the love of—!" The goblin's lips drew back in anger and he threw up his hands, backing away to give himself the space. "Of course your mind goes right there. Of course." _

_The elf paled and quickly came between them again, this time placing her hands firmly on the rogue's shoulders. "Ms. Starshine, it wasn't like that. It was completely and whole-heartedly consensual."_

_Haley lowered her head a little to see the elf's eyes more closely, frown tight, and Vaarsuvius held up pale hands. "You notice that my eyes are as they always have been. I am not Charmed or Dominated or Suggested."_

_The goblin huffed softly, crossing his arms, face still flushed from their brief but passionate kisses. "Please. I'm not a rapist." _

_Haley's frown deepened and she pulled away, her nose wrinkling in honest disgust. "Then you were coerced, right?" _

_The elf shook her head. "No. I wasn't."_

_The rogue's mouth fell open. _

_Redcloak sneered, eye narrow. "What? Is that just too gross for your little human brain to handle?" _

_"Red, you are _not_ helping," Vaarsuvius hissed, giving him a small glare. He moodily shrugged his shoulders, scowling, any tension that she had dispelled from him coming back threefold. _

_Vaarsuvius cursed silently. _

_Haley shook her head, closing her mouth. "_What?_"_

_"We…" Vaarsuvius rubbed her temples, then spun around to face her husband, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Excuse us. I'll return in a moment." _

_"Vaarsuvius…"_

_The warning note made Haley growl, but the elf waved it off. "I shall handle this."_

_Redcloak did not look happy, but the elf didn't expect anything different. Vaarsuvius flashed a reassuring smile and turned away, grasping Haley's arm tightly and pulling her out of the room. _

_They got into the hall and Vaarsuvius pulled her further down, eventually taking her into the library and closing the door behind them, letting the rogue go. "Haley, there is nothing wrong with it." _

_"V…!"_

_Haley backed away, staring, and took a moment to speak. "What were you thinking? ! Not only is that _completely_ disgusting, but do you have any idea how dangerous that is? !"_

_Vaarsuvius shook her head, running a hand through her hair. "What is so disgusting? Yes, he is a goblin, but we're both capable, consenting adults."_

_"It's just… he's a goblin! He's green! He has claws and tusks and stuff! And you're an elf! It's _gross!_" Haley tugged on her own ponytail irritably. "But that's the least of it. V, you're smarter than this. He's Evil with a capital E. Nothing good ever happens to the hero who surrenders to the Evil guy."_

_"First of all, I wouldn't call this 'surrendering' to him," Vaarsuvius said dryly, twisting the silver ring around her finger. "That makes him sound like a traditional seedy moustache-twirling villain and it makes me sound like one of those mildly mentally handicapped damsels in distress who can do nothing but flail ineffectually while they are kidnapped, ravished, and brainwashed by said mustachioed villain. Secondly, you don't know him, not even professionally. The most contact you have is when you're exchanging information, and even then, both of you are so tense it's a wonder you can say anything at all between the wary stares."_

_"Oh, and you know him?" Haley shook her head, as if caught between being surprised and marveling at her friend's naïveté. "I know that you guys work together on most of the inventing and magic and stuff, but you of all people should know that that doesn't mean you know someone."_

_"It's not just that, Haley." Vaarsuvius got a distant smile on her face, quietly resolving to be honest. She had no other card to play, and she supposed it was time to come clean._

_"We don't just talk about work. We haven't since the beginning. We talk about our lives, our education, our cultures and the theology ingrained in them… We discuss magic and philosophy and the political struggles of the past, and when we're not discussing that, we speak of our families and the members of our village. When I lie in bed with him, we discuss our future, what we look for, what we want, and what we will dream about when we finally stop talking and rest. _That_ is what I know him by. Nothing more and nothing less."_

_Haley's eyes were the size of golf balls. _

_Vaarsuvius sighed, catching herself, then ran another hand through violet hair. "It isn't a mere affair, Haley."_

_There was a long silence, giving the books and shelves they sat on a wonderful respite from the unusual noise. _

_"V, how long has this been going on?" _

_The elf thought back. "It began roughly… one, maybe two months after we decided to work together with him and Tsukiko. We were working very closely to learn about the nature of our adversaries—I am actually surprised no one suspected anything after we began to spend entire nights in the study together, though seeing as we actually spent many of those nights researching, perhaps the lack of suspicion was earned on our parts."_

_Haley shook her head in shock. "V, that's like… a year ago. This has been going on for a year?"_

_"Roughly." Vaarsuvius laced her fingers together, sighing softly. "I don't ask you to condone my decision, only to keep the secret. If this becomes public knowledge, you don't need me to tell you how much danger it puts us in, let alone the fact that all hell would break loose among the goblin people. I am not ashamed of him, nor he of me, but our positions in this war, especially his own, and the current political climate between our species do not afford us any kind of opportunity to be together publically without an honest threat to the war effort." The elf looked back up, nothing but seriousness in her expression. "The goblins would be convinced that he had betrayed them and asked them to ally themselves with us based on his relationship with me, and the humanoids, the elves in particular, would take it as a signal that their suspicions are true and goblins are only savages out for their women. We would break apart and the enemy would destroy us." _

_Haley rubbed her temples, apparently absorbing all the information. "This is why I hate politics. V, if you know all this, what makes you still stay with him? You're more logical than this."_

_"Logic means little when the heart is involved. You know that." That smile was back. "I love him, Haley, and he loves me." _

_"How do you know he's not stringing you along? That's the issue with smart Evil people." Haley gestured to the door, those big green eyes hard with shock but tempered with worry. "You don't know when they're just manipulating you or if it's all about sex or something."_

_"I do." _

_Haley frowned, then crossed her arms. "Oh really? How are you so sure?"_

_Vaarsuvius looked at her hand, then held it out. "You asked me why I was wearing this. It's not because it's enchanted."_

_The rogue's eyes went wide again._

_"I requested that we be married in case one of us perished in the war, and he shared the sentiment. He has been my spouse for a month and a half now."_

_Haley carefully took the elf's hand, examining the ring. _

_"Were you planning on telling me this, V?"_

_The voice was so tiny, and the undertone of hurt confused the elf. Vaarsuvius cocked her head, frowning, and waited for the rogue to turn her face upwards again. "I suppose. Redcloak promised me that, should we win the war and there wasn't significant political struggle, he would pass leadership to Jirix and we wouldn't have to hide any longer. I would have informed you then." _

_Haley swallowed, letting the elf's hand go, and put her hands on her hips. "Do you trust me?" _

_Oh. So that's what this was about. _

_"Ms. Starshine—"_

_"Call me Haley. You have been for the past minute or so. We're friends, aren't we?"_

_Vaarsuvius stifled a sigh, noting the tension in the rogue's stance. "Very well. Haley. I put more trust in you than I do in most, but I saw no need to compromise the integrity of the secret. My marital status doesn't affect you in any way, and I knew what you would think of Redcloak as my spouse, so I didn't feel it was necessary."_

_"Necessity isn't the point, V! I mean, this is a really big part of your life and…"_

_Vaarsuvius shrugged, twisting the ring on her finger. "Haley, we speak with each other about personal topics very rarely since you entered your relationship with Elan. I think that it is appropriate to confide and put more emotional resources in whom you love instead of whom you consider a mere friend, but please don't think I am snubbing you if I do not bring these topics up of my own accord." _

_The rogue winced, the color draining from her face. _

_After a beat, she straightened out, and Vaarsuvius waited for her to speak. She didn't._

_"Haley, is there something you wish to say?" _

_Another beat passed._

_"…No. I need to think. I won't tell anyone, promise; you can go and finish up anything I interrupted." _

_Vaarsuvius sighed gratefully. "Thank you, my friend."_

_

* * *

_A/N: Yay! Update! :D


	15. She's Catching On

"Good afternoon."

Crim looked up from his books, immediately grinning and standing up. "Hey! I was wondering if you forgot."

"Of course not. Feelgood's usual rant about chastity took an extra ten minutes." Elf smiled, taking his hand and swinging it gently.

"That'd explain it." His face was a little red, but he didn't pull away from her, instead pulling her down with him so they were sitting together. "I'm glad that was it."

"What, you expected that I was no longer interested?"

His expression confirmed, and Elf merely snuggled a little closer. "Believe me, Crim, if I were uninterested, I would make that quite clear. I'm sure you realize that."

"Yeah, I know." He hesitated, then gave her a soft peck on the lips, color coming to his cheeks. Elf smiled, resting her head on his shoulder.

"How is your brother? He seemed in much better health when I saw him last."

"He's doing great. Nature's going to let him out of the infirmary tomorrow." Crim nuzzled her hair, stroking her shoulder, and Elf began to chuckle.

"That is excellent." She rested a hand on his arm. "If I didn't know you better, I would say you're trying to seduce me."

His cheeks got red, but he didn't get nervous this time, instead smiling and holding her close. "I'm not trying to seduce you. I'm not even trying to get you to make out. I just… really like touching you. Do you want me to stop? Is that too much?"

"No, no, it is fine. I find your affection charming." Elf kissed his cheek lightly. "You do not need to be so nervous, Crim. I will tell you if I'm uncomfortable. I'm not nearly as delicate as you seem to think I am."

"I don't think you're delicate. I just don't want to screw anything up." Crim smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck, provoking another chuckle.

"Have confidence." Elf picked a book off the shelf in front of them, giving him a smile. "But don't get distracted. We still have studying to do."

"Yeah. Yeah, we still have a project." He kept his arms around her, but he picked up a book as well, opening it up.

Elf kissed his cheek, staying cuddled. It occurred to her that she had never been held by a boy before.

She rested her forehead on his neck, making a satisfied sound in the back of her throat. Crim responded by nuzzling her hair.

Elf let out a happy sigh and smiled.

* * *

"Someone's smiling."

Elf put the backpack on the ground, grabbing a brush from her desk and running it through her hair before giving Red a smile. "I simply had a good day."

"Had to do with Crim?"

Elf continued to brush, glancing out the window at the forest beyond. "We decided to have another outing this weekend. He promised to show me some places in the thicket."

"Then why aren't you still in the library?" Red smirked from her bed, pulling off her school shirt and grabbing a work shirt from her drawer. "I would have thought you guys would have your faces glued together."

"Please. We're more tasteful than that." Nonetheless, she couldn't stop smiling. "We felt it would be best to not raise any suspicion by staying in the back too long for the third day in a row. Besides, he had work therapy."

"Oh, right, he's with me. We're probably working with the apple trees again." She paused in putting on her shirt, frowning. "I think there's something weird with the apples. I tried one and it made me sick until I drank some water."

"I had a similar problem. I simply decided to not eat any." Elf stood up and went around to pick up the clothes she had discarded on the floor the night before. The students were expected to keep their rooms spotless, and it wouldn't do if there was a surprise inspection while there were clothes on the floor.

She caught sight of something tucked haphazardly underneath her desk. It was a book. It took her a moment to remember what it was.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just going to not eat any. It's too bad they look so good." Red finished buttoning her work shirt and trotted out. "It's probably because they grow so close to the Lethe and Mt. Atlas. Two divine areas in one place is bound to mess around with the plants."

She waved, walking out the door. "Anyway, I'm going. I'll tell Crim you said hi."

Elf nodded goodbye, then picked up the book from the ground, examining it. It was bound in simple brown leather, and it lacked anything to identify a title or an author.

The student sat on her bed, opening the book to the title page.

_Property of Evangeline M. Strong_

Elf frowned in confusion. There were hearts and smiley faces peppering the handwritten words. It didn't look like any kind of professional book of theology.

She put the book on her pillow and pulled her journal out from under the bed, flicking past notes on Morpheus and her strange trance dreams to a blank page before going back to the leather book, turning to text. It was all handwritten.

_I've never had a diary before, even as a child, so forgive me, diary, if I don't understand the etiquette usually reserved for journal/writer relationships. In exchange for your lack of judgment, I will try to learn how to write to you properly._

_Do we understand each other? Excellent. I'm sure we'll be great friends. My first impressions are always right, you know, and my first impression of you was most certainly a good one!_

Elf frowned in confusion, wondering if this was meant to be fiction or was really the diary of a truly batty woman. Did this have anything to do with Morpheus?

_Dr. Abelard, you see, told me that I should keep a record of my final week or so of pregnancy, and a few months afterwards. He says that it will help keep any post-natal depression at bay, but I doubt I'll need the help, no offense meant. How can I be depressed when I get to meet my little Agape for the first time? Or Ambrose. I'm not quite sure yet, but my Theo assures me that he'd adore a boy or a girl the same. I'm sure he's telling the truth—it's our first one, diary! Oh, I hope he or she has his or her father's eyes; his are such pretty shades of green, while mine are quite boring shades of gray and light blue. I think that we'll probably spoil the child rotten! I can't wait!_

_Oh, dear, my darling mother-in-law is calling me! I don't know if it's rude or not to stop writing so suddenly, so I hope you forgive me, diary, as I must do just that._

_~ Evey_

Her head began to spin, the name 'Evangeline' bouncing in her head. Elf lay down, her fingers brushing the parchment bound in the book. It had been a long day. Why did she have to study at the moment? She had worked hard with Crim.

She could squeeze in a little trancing. She hadn't done a lot of it the night before.

Just a little.

_There was pressure on her wrists and ankles. Bound. Like she was about to be operated on. _

_The world around her wobbled rhythmically, bobbing up and down and side to side. Her eyes drifted open, though she couldn't see anything. The sound of gears clicked in the walls, spinning to accelerate. Accelerate something she was inside. _

_Her lids closed again. _

_"Hush, hush, time to be sleeping  
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping  
Dreams of peace and of freedom  
So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…"_

_Someone was crooning in Ancient Elven. It took a while before her mind muddled through the muck and was able to understand the words, mixing them up like a cocktail. Sleep? Dream? Death? The words were all so close in the language. _

_"Summerwick N°139." _

_There was clicking. A door sliding out of the way. Clatter clatter. _

_Footsteps. _

_"We stood with heads bowed in prayer  
While fighters laid our cottages bare  
The flames licked the clear mountain air  
And many were dead by the morning."_

_A hand was against her face. Rough. Calloused. The air smelled like iron and wood and the hand felt like sandpaper. _

_Eyelids fluttered open again, struggling to see. Should be able to see through dim light. Couldn't. Eyes too tired. _

_A person—goblin, human, elven, couldn't tell—was standing there, running a hand down her neck to her arm, and there was a painful prick on the inside of her elbow. _

_"We need to readjust your dose. You keep waking up." _

_Her breathing slowed. Slowed. Relaxed. Deepened. _

_"Hush, hush, time to be sleeping  
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping  
Dreams of peace and of freedom  
So smile in your sleep, bonny baby…"_

_"You're important to your community, aren't you? We found evidence of many divine healings on your body." _

_Cloud pulsed around her. Sucking in consciousness. Sucking in the light. _

_"To the extent where you would rack up a sizeable bill or you used to be an adventurer. Too bad the gods aren't exactly around to heal this up." _

_Hand on hers. Tracing her fingers. Missing. Not enough fingers. Only three. _

_"The right half of your head was shredded and you lost your right pointer and middle fingers. You were lucky you only got minor eye and eardrum damage. Nothing we can't fix." _

_The world rippled with the person's chuckle, the fingers touching her face again. "Who needs gods to fix us, am I right? Your species is lovely. Not blocky like humans or dwarves. Doesn't have the savage je ne sais quoi of the goblins, but it's more elegant. It has a Renaissance feel to the body structure. You're assigned to Dolly, so I'm sure you'll hear a lot about that."_

_The fingers traced every curve, every bone, eventually making it to her ear and caressing the outer lobe._

_The world shuddered, closely followed by her chest, her eyes squeezing shut for a moment. No. No one should touch that. No one but… but…_

_She couldn't remember his name._

_"Oh, right, that's an erogenous zone, isn't it?" _

_The fingers were gone from her ear, going back to her face, then her neck. "Sorry about that. Your people still think of your bodies as part of you, don't you? I don't really remember what that's like. I guess I'm making you feel uncomfortable right now, hmmm?"_

_The fingers drifted down to her hand again. "I see a tan line on your finger. Do you have someone special?"_

_Red._

_"Where is our proud highland mettle?  
Our troops once so fierce in battle  
Now stand, cowed, huddled like cattle  
And wait to be shipped o'er the ocean."_

_"I don't suppose you know anything about the person singing, do you?" _

_The world was fading fast._

_"It was nice talking to you, Summerwick N°139. I can't wait for Dolly to give you a name. I need to take care of that singing, now."_

_There was the click of the sliding door. Then it closed._

_"Hush, hush, time to be sleeping  
Hush, hush, dreams… come…"_

_The voice went away._

"Elf?"

She snapped awake, sitting up with a jolt and staring at Red as she unbuttoned her sweaty work shirt.

"You are back already?" Elf shook her head, looking down at the open book on her pillow. "I thought you would take four hours."

"Yeah. I did." Red frowned, grabbing a towel from the closet. "Elf, are you okay? You've been sleeping a lot."

"I'm fine." Elf grabbed her notebook, flicking it open and writing down notes on her newest trance. "Plenty of trance is good for me."

"I guess." Red was still frowning. Elf gave her a reassuring smile then looked back down at the notebook, keeping her handwriting neat as she wrote down every detail she could remember.

"You'd tell me if you were in trouble, right?"

It took Elf a moment to answer, only ten percent of her concentration going to Red.

Red. Why was that name…?

"Of course I would." Elf turned the page of her notebook, continuing to scribble. Red nodded, still frowning, and stripped off the rest of her clothes, wrapping the towel around her body.

"Alright. I'm going to take a shower."

"Mmm."

Elf closed her notebook and Red left the room. Red would probably wake her up if she tranced again. Good thing, too—she wondered at how long it took sometimes. What if it was dangerous?

She pushed those thoughts out of her head and crossed her legs, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

_"What about him makes you smile like that?" _

_The elf looked up, arching an eyebrow as she put away books on the shelves, and the rogue swung her legs over the edge of the table she was sitting on. "I want to understand why you love him." _

_The elf cocked her head, then looked back at the shelves. "Well, many reasons. It is difficult to articulate things like that." _

_"You're great at articulating stuff. Try." _

_The mage frowned thoughtfully, absently opening one of the books and leafing through the pages. "Well, he is intelligent, loving, thoughtful, dedicated, gentle… I can think of many traits of his I find attractive."_

_"Intelligent and dedicated I'll grant you, but I've never seen the other ones."_

_"Of course you haven't. He's very introverted and he doesn't like revealing himself to people he doesn't trust. He opens up slowly, but he's more than worth the effort." A distant smile formed on the elf's face as she put the book away. She turned around, leaning against the bookcase and looking at the rogue. "You may be surprised to learn that he's actually quite the romantic." _

_"Seriously?" Haley leaned forward, her eyebrows going up. "I don't believe that. How?" _

_"He's a fool when we're alone, but a charming one. He does things to make me feel loved. Mostly little things like asking me how I am or telling me I look beautiful or holding my hand when we're working together." That smile brightened up her face, smoothing away the stress lines that had started to form, and she crossed her arms across her chest. "One silly thing he does is insist on kissing me every evening before I go to bed and telling me that he loves me. He says that he feels it encourages me to have good trance memories instead of upsetting ones. It's foolish, but it makes me feel cared for."_

_Haley softened. "That sounds really sweet, V. Does it work?"_

_"I don't believe I've had a truly bad trance since he began." The elf sat beside the rogue. It occurred to her that they hadn't really had a private conversation since the Battle of Azure City, over a year ago. Yet the shared platonic intimacy felt as nice now as it did then. "He has that effect on me. He doesn't like it when I sleep alone because he gets concerned I will have a bad trance now that we are embroiled in such a bloody and uncertain conflict, so he does his best to make sure we're together when I start to trance, even if nothing happens and he has to leave soon afterwards to keep up appearances."_

_Haley crossed her ankles, her legs dangling now. "How did all this start, V?"_

_The elf shrugged, fiddling with her ponytail. "I'm not quite sure. We had to work together, so we decided to put aside the fact we were enemies and different species. Inevitably, discussion of warfare and martial politics and machines versus magic turned to discussions of theology and inter-species politics and the like. He's very well-spoken and intelligent, so it was easy to get lost in these conversations. After a while, the discussions became more personal, and one day, I kissed him in the library."_

_Haley arched an eyebrow, a smile forming on her face. "Wow, didn't know you were so aggressive, V."_

_"He mentioned in passing that he hadn't had many serious relationships in the past because he was always focused on his mission for his people and his god. I had more experience in such things, so I decided I should start it instead of waiting for him to gather his courage. We are at war—time is precious." The elf smiled at the rogue, resting her hands in her lap. "I'm glad I decided that." _

_The rogue nodded, leaning back on the table. "What about—"_

_The door swung open and Roy walked in, rubbing his temple. "V! Thank the gods; I've been looking for you."_

"Elf?"

Elf snapped awake, looking at the dripping wet Red blearily as she dried off her hair, a concerned frown on her face. "You were sleeping again."

The elf took a moment, then rubbed her face, waking herself up. "Yes. I've been feeling very tired lately—possibly an oncoming flu. I believe I'll be trancing a little more, provided you don't mind being quiet."

"No, I don't mind." Red was still frowning in worry. "I'm going to go see Patch after this. Maybe you should see Nature soon."

"If I feel ill, I shall. Tell Patch I said greetings."

As curious as she was about that last vision, she was more curious about the one she had had before. Elf jotted down the details of her latest trance, then put aside her notebook, crossing her legs and closing her eyes again, actively thinking about the rolling sensation and the song crooned in Ancient Elven.

* * *

"Hasn't anyone told you it's rude to fall asleep while someone else is talking?"

Ice water poured on her head, snapping her awake with a shout. The world spun, the dim light wreaking havoc with her fractured ability to perceive, and the throbbing pain in her ear just made it harder to concentrate.

"Excellent. I was told you have a resistance to laughing gas and morphine, so you should be more alert than the rest right now."

It was freezing. The elf tried to hide her shivers, squinting to make her sight stabilize.

"Oh, don't bother. I'm assuming your eyesight and hearing's a little off from the gas and explosions. Or it's possible it's just your inner ear that was affected, which would explain why you're leaning like that."

Leaning? She wasn't leaning.

"We can fix that once you've had a more extensive exam. Impaired slaves aren't particularly useful for delicate work, and elves aren't built for heavy manual labor. We generally leave that to dwarves."

There was a tap. She cocked her head, concentrating until her head began to pound. There was a person standing there with a clipboard, or at least that's what it _sounded_ like. Then the world began to spin again and she couldn't make out anything.

Was the floor wobbling? It felt like the floor was wobbling.

"Andrew reported you were chatty. Probably because of the Anatac—one of the tricks of technology, see? Mix Anatac with a little mortal magic and it temporarily fixes most the stuff you pick up in the battlefield. Being half-blind, unbalanced, and drugged out of your gourd probably helped shut you up. Too bad we can't keep you that way."

She tentatively pushed her sopping hair out of her face, having to lightly put one finger on her cheek and feel her way up. She almost missed her head.

"What's fifteen divided by three?"

She blinked sluggishly, squinting again, trying to make out the person speaking.

"Fifteen divided by three. Speak up."

She slowly slid the arm keeping her propped up forward, gently letting her body rest on its side. The world still spun, but it wasn't so bad.

"In retrospect, maybe giving you a dwarf's dose of anesthesia was overkill."

She closed her eyes. Her head was pounding. It felt like there was a little creature within the delicate skull swinging a pickaxe against the bone to make an escape route.

She hadn't heard any movement, but there was a hand at her wrist, checking her pulse.

"You can't be examined like this. You're lucky you're still alive with a heart rate like that."

The hand was gone.

"I'll put down a note for the final examiner to give you the appraisal and I'll tell the captain to lower your dose of anesthetic. I'm sure he can manage to keep you quiet without killing you."

It occurred to her that they didn't know who she was. That was good. Keep it that way.

She couldn't quite remember why, but she really wanted to have anything that was red-colored at the moment.

She fell back asleep.

* * *

"Summerwick N°139."

There was a sharp prick on the inside of her elbow.

"There will be withdrawal symptoms, but this will stave them off until the end of our examination."

She opened her eyes, squinting in the dim light, the world wobbling, but her mind was back. "Where am I?"

"In a settlement." She couldn't quite make out the figure above her, but she felt it swab the inside of her elbow and put on a band aid. "Can you sit up?"

Vaarsuvius forced herself in a sitting position, grasping the edges of the table she was lying on. The world shook for a moment, then steadied, and with every throb from her ear, the dark pulsed.

"What's thirty divided by eight?"

Vaarsuvius frowned, keeping a white-knuckled grip on the table, and needed a moment to process the limited information on her surroundings before she answered. "Three point seventy-five. Don't insult my intelligence."

"Not trying to insult you. Just trying to see what got hurt in the field and in transport. Are you aware how far you're leaning to the side?"

"I'm not leaning."

"You're leaning. Possibly because of brain damage."

Her stomach sank, but she wouldn't show it. From what little that was filtering into her brain, she was a prisoner of war. She didn't know what they did with prisoners beyond the fact they had breeding camps, and if they thought of her as disabled, what would keep them from putting her into one of those? "I'm able to communicate with you, am I not? I am undamaged."

The world wobbled again under her.

"I doubt it's because of a brain stem injury because that would wreak havoc with a lot more than your balance, but I'll check while you're under just to be sure. Your inner ear was probably hurt, possibly by the grenades. So was your right eye."

Vaarsuvius grimaced. "What makes you certain of that?"

"Your right pupil isn't dilating at all according to light, and it's a different color from your left. It's navy."

She took a moment to allow that to process.

"That sounds healthy," she said dryly.

"That's what I thought. That, and you haven't looked directly at anything once this whole conversation. Focus on my face."

"I cannot see your face." Vaarsuvius scowled, glaring in a general forward direction. "Perhaps if you were to make a light, I would be able to."

"We have fluorescent lights on, Summerwick N°139. You're blind."

Vaarsuvius stiffened.

"I'm not. I can see. It is dark, but I can see."

"That's one disability you can't explain away." There was a rustle. "It's nothing that can't be fixed. What was your mother's maiden name?"

The elf squinted, struggling to see, but the details of the world were lost. "Elves do not have surnames. Even if we did, I wouldn't tell you."

"You have surnames now."

What was that supposed to mean?

"I'm just seeing if you have memory function. What is the name of the tree?"

"Assuming you mean that monster of a thing that is holding us together, Malre."

Out of nowhere, a hand smacked her cheek, not enough to leave a mark but enough to sting.

She cried out and reflexively lashed out, clawing at thin air ineffectually, and snarled. "What, by the gods, precipitated _that_? !"

"I'm not asking for the name elves call it. It's real name." The voice was cold and hard, nothing but flint grinding against her (admittedly delicate) eardrums. "What is its real name?"

"Do you wish for the humans' word? Yggdrasil? There is no true name for a thing; only different words!"

There was another slap, this one harder, and the elf stifled a cry. "There is only one real word for everything. One real way. Your _people's_," the word was spat like poison, "way is not it. Now tell me. What is the tree's name?"

The elf snarled, wishing for nothing more than a couple prepared spells. No, scratch that, just the ability to see so she could strike back. "Don't ask me, brute. I don't make a habit of researching the culture of glorified war-mongering slave traders!"

"So you don't know." Just like that, the flint was gone and the voice was the calm, clinical tone of before. "It's the Daughter Tree, for the record. Born from the Second Mother. We'll use another question. What is your identification number?"

The elf's hands clenched up on the edges of the table, teeth gritted and voice dripping with disdain. She nursed her fury with the knowledge she would blast this sorry excuse for a doctor to the high heavens the moment she had a spell book. And the moment she could see. "Assuming you mean what you and your ilk have been referring to me as, it's one hundred and thirty-nine. I refuse to respond to it, however."

"That's good enough. Dolly will give you a name when she gets you, and you'll respond to that after she breaks you in." There was a click. "I think I'm finished with the cursory exam Isabel couldn't do. You're missing two fingers and the right half of your body was damaged, but it's mostly superficial. Scars will be the worst you'll end up with after I'm through. You may have brain damage, but that's most likely just damage to the inner ear and the eyes because you seem to have a fine grasp of your higher functions and there wasn't any problem with things like your heart rate or blood pressure. I'll replace your missing fingers—you won't notice a difference besides having no sense of touch in the replacements, and if you play your cards right, Dolly might be convinced to have someone give you regeneration."

Something occurred to the elf. She rested a finger on her leg, feeling up slowly, and realized she had no clothes on.

She promptly tucked her knees under her chin and crossed her ankles to hide as much as possible. Of course, the movement made the world wobble, but it was worth it. "Don't you dare gawk at me."

"Hmm. Andrew put a note here about you acting like this. Isabel wrote she couldn't get an impression of you because you were so drugged. You'll get over yourself. Dolly has her ways."

The elf sneered, cursing her lack of sight in her head. It was a lot harder to give someone a defiant look when one didn't even know what direction they were facing. "Your dear 'Dolly' can try her 'ways' with me once I have my spell book."

"Good luck with that. Slaves don't get spell books."

A hand rested on her head, grasping her hair, and she swung a fist, only for her wrist to be caught by another hand, the strength there at least three times the amount she had felt in the hands of fighters, and it felt like it was just one struggle away from snapping her bone.

"It's time to give up the life you once had. Your name, your family, and your culture don't exist here. You're playing by our rules now."

The hand around her wrist twisted.

CRACK.

The elf shrieked.

"And we're rough players."

There was a sharp prick in her neck and she was unconscious again.

* * *

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Red fluffed Patch's pillow, provoking a big smile from the goblin. "Much better now that you're here." She swatted his shoulder and he laughed, squirming in a sitting position. "What? I am."

"You just want to make out again."

Patch shrugged, grinning impishly. "Maybe. Or maybe I just like having you around." He stifled a yawn. "This place is so _boring_ when you or Big Brother aren't here. There's nothing to do but homework and sleeping."

"Maybe you can actually read a book for once."

Patch gave a mock gasp. "Blasphemy! Only my nerdy older brother actually _reads_ for _fun!_"

Red laughed, her cheeks becoming a cheerful rosy color, and she sat down next to Patch, eyes sparkling with humor. "You should learn a thing or two from him. Maybe you'll actually manage something above a C in your classes."

"Pssh. Grades are overrated." The goblin scooted to the side to make room for the human, resting his hand on hers. "The sooner we all can get out of this nuthouse, the better. All you need is good behavior, not good grades."

She looked down at his hand, smiling. "Good grades help."

"You're one to talk. Maybe they put you in the same room as Elf so you'd pick up her study habits."

"And stay in the library all day? No thanks." Red lay back next to him, snuggled up against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'd rather hang around here."

"You have low standards, missy."

She chuckled, making him smile, and Patch rolled a little so he could prop himself up on his arm and look at her. "Hey, you want to be my girlfriend?"

Red's eyebrows went up and she glanced at his face.

"I mean, I like you. I like spending time with you." Patch shrugged, the tips of his ears getting a little pink. "Why not do something official?"

She cocked her head, then smiled. "Sure. I'd like that."

"Good." He leaned down and kissed her softly, running his tongue along her lip. "Sealed with a kiss, right?"

"Maybe more than one." Red grinned and pulled him down again, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're right—I have really low standards."

"Ha ha." He chuckled and nipped her lip, pressing forward with a low purr beginning in his chest.

Outside of their room, the school nurse sat at her desk, staring at the smooth wood top with her head propped on her hands and her eyes empty. Her black-haired companion stood beside her, occasionally giving her hair a soothing touch.

"Is this why I decided to forget?" the elf murmured softly, tracing the wood grain with her gaze. "The guilt? I've always been able to handle pain and fear, but never guilt."

"I only know a few reasons behind people's decisions. Reasons you know I can't tell you." The black-haired woman turned her eyes towards the window, sighing softly. "If you want to make it go away, you know how to do it."

"And just run away from my crimes like a coward, right? Is that what we all are? Fugitives from our own sense of responsibility?" The elf crossed her arms and placed them on the desk, staring through the wood to something else. "Even Dorukan. Even Girard. Even _Soon._ All of them. All of _us._ Is the only reason we're here because we can't face the things we've done?"

"Not the only reason, no. Everyone had their own reasons." The black-haired woman sighed, running a gentle hand through the elf's hair. "Do you want to go to the river? I'll take you back to your room, and you'll wake up without any memory of any of this. You won't remember Her cruelties or your shame or the conflict… You won't even be able to see the Great Tree anymore. It'll be just as invisible to you as to everyone else. And so will I."

The elf didn't respond for a while.

"I don't want to forget you. I feel like I already did."

The black-haired woman's eyes grew distant. "Another life, Lirian. You weren't the only one who forgot things."

The elf didn't respond.

The woman kept stroking her hair. "I'll stay with you until you make a decision."

And she did.

* * *

A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! :D


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